


Undertale-A Second Chance

by AlpineSettler



Series: The Perfect Storm-an Undertale fan series [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Fights, Friskriel, Mostly post-pacifist, Spiritual, mostly 3rd person except for o/c flashbacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 22:43:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 44,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10728795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlpineSettler/pseuds/AlpineSettler
Summary: In an alternate timeline, only one human ever fell into the Underground. He was adopted by the Dreemurr family and lived happily with the monsters until everything changed one horrible day. Now, living a new life on the Surface in a timeline that isn't his, he faces a dark evil that only can be defeated when monsters and humans fight together.





	1. Judgement Hall

My entire body shook with rage as I looked down the Judgement Hall. There stood the first human I had seen in years, aside from myself. Questions and Accusations ran through my mind as I watched my fellow creature approach us. So this was humanity…A race of unfeeling murderers who’s only source of worth seemed to be in ruining others’ peace and happiness. I fingered the sword strapped to my side. I had never used it on others except in duels with Undyne. I gripped the handle of my pistol. I had never shot it at anything other than jars and plates. Now it looked like all that was about to change. All the years of playful jousting and marksman competitions would have to be used to kill.

I looked at my brother. He was filled with just as much rage as me. His body shook with anger and sorrow, his white fur along his neck raised in fury. His horns had been sharpened. He held bright globes of fire in his hands. He was also levitating. I hadn’t seen Asriel like this before. But then again, we had never experienced death of our loved ones. We had never seen our royal parents hold each other in sorrow and fear and disappear into dust along with everyone else we loved. Asriel, the former Prince, now turned King of Monsters looked at me, smiled and said two words I will never forget. 

“For Life.”

I looked up at him and raised my shield and unholstered my sidearm. I cocked the slide, loading it and solemnly nodded.  
The Killer was approaching. Blood and Dust trailed behind it as it shambled towards us, breathing raggedly. The beauty of the Judgement Hall was dimmed by the presence of the Evil Thing. As I prepared myself, I looked at my brother and answered, 

“For Life…”


	2. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here, we switch our attention to the Post-Pacifist timeline (the "real" timeline).

The door to the large house creaked as it opened and allowed in its two inhabitants. One, a tall kindly goat-like monster carrying groceries. The other, a young teenaged human girl carrying a backpack laden with books. Although each was carrying heavy loads, they walked into the house with smiles on their faces. That day had been the last day of school until summer was past. The child, Frisk, was excited for obvious reasons. No school for three months! Toriel Frisk's adopted mother and (technically) Queen of Monsters was excited as well. She loved teaching her mixed class of human and monster children, but teaching was draining and she felt it was well that both pupils and teachers earn a break. 

Frisk walked to her room and plopped down on her bed sighing exhaustedly. Finished at last! Ideas went through her mind as she relayed what her plans were for the first week of summer in her mind. Hanging out with Monster Kid and Bratty and Catty and some human classmates at the mall, bug hunting with Toriel and finally watching Mew Mew Kissy Cutie with Undyne and Alphys. All fun in their own ways. However, the Big One was the Annual Ebbot Camping Trip next Sunday. The Magnificent Seven (which was what Papyrus and Sans jointly came up with as the name for Frisk, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel and Asgore in one group. They had come up with that after watching a human Western.) were going to camp on the slopes on Mt. Ebott as celebration of the now 4th Anniversary of their freedom from the Underground. 

Frisk hadn’t seen some of that gang in a long while. Alphys and Sans had both gone and done their own things and pursued their own careers. Alphys as a joint scientist and Sans…..as a YouTube personality. It looked like people loved tuning in to his channel listening to him rattling off puns while playing video games and trolling hackers. His videos, of course, were hardly edited. 

Papyrus, Undyne, Asgore and Toriel had all found jobs in the new mixed school that had been built both for Monsters and local Humans. Toriel was one of the main teachers there and head administrator. Papyrus and Undyne both worked as coaches. Asgore was the main groundskeeper.  
Everyone seemed so happy…

Well, almost everyone. 

Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys lived their new lives with the utmost joy and happiness and seemed as if nothing could bring them down.

Sans, Asgore and Toriel also seemed happy and went about their lives happily enough…but Frisk couldn’t help but feel that something still wasn’t fully right…

She wasn’t quite sure what was bothering Sans. He kept to himself these days usually and she hardly ever saw him aside from his videos. Although they did occasionally speak on the phone. She felt that maybe he was just still trying to adjust to life outside of the underground.

Frisk, however, was sure she knew why Asgore and Toriel had their own sorrows, even if they did their best to hide it. She could see it in their eyes. They were missing someone.  
She knew who that someone was. She knew because she missed him too, even though she had only known him as himself for a very short time.

Asriel.

Frisk lay in her bed remembering him. She could still see him clear in her memory. A scared, lonely, sweet little Boss Monster that twice had sacrificed himself for the greater good of both humans and monsters. She could still hear him sobbing. She could still feel his warm soft embrace. She could still see him fading among the yellow flowers with tears in his eyes but holding his head high with a smile on his face. Afraid yet not regretful. Alone yet steadfast.  
Frisk cried in her bed as she thought of how the kindest, sweetest of monsters couldn’t live to see or enjoy the fruits of his labors. Not even his other form could. She had looked everywhere for Flowey but never found him. Not in the Underground, not on the Surface. Was he just observing everything from a distance? Did he truly pass away when the Barrier was shattered? Did he take his own life?  
The thought of the best friend she almost never had ending his life brought a new wave of tears to her and she cried herself to sleep that night.

\

 

That Sunday, Frisk was feeling much better as she was reunited with her Six original companions. After the first greetings and hugs, the tents were set up. Frisk couldn’t help laughing on how Papyrus, after erecting a perfectly pitched tent, scolded Sans for saying he was finished after placing a blanket in the passenger seat of Papyrus’s red hot rod. 

“REALLY SANS! YOU’RE UNBEARABLE! YOU CANNOT SLEEP IN MY CAR! NOT WHEN YOU SHOULD BE ‘ROUGHING IT’ WITH THE REST OF US! IT’S TRADITION!”

Sans shrugged his shoulders and said, “but bro, i always put my blanket in your car. that’s tradition too, ain’t it?” 

“UGH!” 

This went on for some time.

Later, that evening, Asgore had suggested that they all walk to the summit of Mt. Ebbot to see the sunset. This was met with acclaim from Undyne and Papyrus and groans from Alphys. But in the end, all the “Magnificent 7” made their slow way up the slope of Mt. Ebbot and were panting as they watched the sun set between the City and the Mountains into the Sea. They all were enraptured by the view. It wasn’t long before Alphys pointed out the first star that appeared in the sky. All the monsters and Frisk looked at the star and habitually made a silent wish in their hearts. Frisk had been wishing for the same thing time after time; that she could find Flowey and bring him home. But tonight, she made a different wish. She wanted to see Asriel. She wanted him to be standing here next to her and be reunited with his family. He had refused to come up and see his family the last time she saw him. 

‘Please, Star Bright. Please bring him back to his family. Bring him back to us. To me. We miss him...so much.’

Eventually, the sun set in the sky and stars spread throughout the canopy of the Firmament. It was time to walk back. As they walked down the mountain, Frisk’s thoughts were interrupted by a massive cracking sound and a blinding flash. When her ears stopped ringing and she could see again, Frisk could see the group hurrying down the mountain clamoring with confusion and anxiety. Toriel was holding Frisk’s hand and made her way down as well, her other hand holding a small white flame. Sans was nowhere to be seen.  
When the group made it down to the camp, they were greeted by a large circular mark of singed grass. Asgore, Alphys and Sans, who seemed to be the first one there somehow, were gazing on it intently. Papyrus seemed on guard. Undyne had a spear in her hands.  
Just when everyone was starting to relax, a twig snapped in the forest surrounding the camp. Undyne rushed into the forest with a spear in hand with Papyrus following close behind. 

“Show yourself!” she called out.

“W-wait! Undyne!!” Alphys called after her in worry.

Asgore walked into the forest with a massive globe of red fire in his hands. The light shone brightly into the forest and didn’t catch fire to any of the trees.

“Alright now. Show yourselves.” He said with both authority and calmness, even though he, himself, was nervous. “We mean you no harm.” 

Another twig snapped, followed by a hushed whisper.

“Please step into the light, so that we can know if you are here in peace.”

Silence pervaded the forest until two voices spoke up. 

“D-dad?”

“Is it really you??”

All attention snapped towards the edge of the lit clearing as two figures limped wearily into the red light.

Both were around 6 feet high, both tired and covered in mud, sweat and…. was that blood?? They were also dressed in what seemed to be, against all odds, Underground Armor usually worn by Monsters in the Royal Guard. It was in very poor condition and damaged.  
One was a young human man who seemed only a few years older than Frisk. He was tired, afraid and walked with a noticeable limp but had a look of unbelief in his face. He held a broken sword in one hand and with the other supported his friend. 

His friend was what brought gasps from the group. He was clearly not human. Covered in short white fur, matted with blood. He had a set of horns much like Asgore’s but shorter. In fact, he was caprine in appearance, much like Asgore and Toriel. He looked up with a face full of shock and pain. Frisk probably was the only one who had seen him older than his child self, but Asgore and Toriel could recognize that face anywhere: Asriel Dreemurr, Prince of Monster kind, Alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much longer I know. Most chapters are gonna be this long hopefully.


	3. Shock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Two Wanderers cause some ruckus with Frisk and co.

Stunned silence permeated the glen. Everyone was teetering on the edge of disbelief and indescribable joy. 

It was Frisk that ended the silence. No longer able to contain herself, she ran towards the figures screaming, “Asriiellll!!!” 

Asriel hadn’t noticed Frisk until she screamed and ran towards him. He looked at her with a blank, confused look for a moment.   
Then, suddenly his eyes grew wide with a sudden rage and fear and mustering up his strength, he shouted, “GET BACK! Don’t even think about trying it!” 

Frisk gasped and stopped, shocked and scared and upset. What-?

Suddenly the human seemed to notice what his companion saw and he too straightened up and said in a loud ragged voice. “Don’t you dare take another step forward!” He pointed his broken sword at Frisk and his breathing grew short and quick. A crazed look was in his eyes. 

Frisk stood with a hurt look on her face. “Asriel…it’s me…”

“Asriel?” Asgore shakily spoke. His flame sputtered and died out momentarily before he re-lit it. Toriel was silent with her hands over her mouth in shock. 

Asriel paid him no attention as he attempted to muster up an attack. 

Frisk made another step towards them when the strange human, to the shock and worry of all, produced a handgun he had been apparently carrying. He aimed it right at Frisk and said in a dark voice, “If you take another step forward…you’re really not gonna like what happens next.”

Sans in the back of the group raised his eyebrows in surprise and shock and, had anyone been looking at him, would’ve seen the most surprised look he had in many years.

The human made a step threateningly towards Frisk when he cried out in pain and fell over. His leg was broken and he had tried to walk on it in desperation. His fall also brought down Asriel, who passed out from fear and exhaustion.

\

The human was placed in a chair surrounded by blue bones placed by Papyrus. He was given some magic monster noodles to bring up his HP, which, to the relief of all was a normal 20. After he had been healed, the human looked at his captors with an expression of disbelief. He had initially tried to get up out his chair before Papyrus’s blue bones were placed there. He looked as if he was about to cry. On the other side of the room lay Asriel on a makeshift cot. He had been healed as well but he was exhausted and lay there in silence. 

The human spoke up, “I’m very sorry…I guess me and Asriel are experiencing some hallucinations…”

Toriel stepped toward the strange human after she had been sitting by her son, holding his hand. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Who are you?” 

Something came over the human. He looked at her in absolute incredulity and whispered, “You don’t….know me…?” Suddenly, tears formed in the boy’s eyes and he began to sob. 

The monsters looked around at each other confused and slightly embarrassed. 

The boy’s sobbing seemed to have an effect on Asriel, because he strained and sat up and spoke for the first time ever, “Ray, what’s wrong?” 

All monsters looked at Asriel and he soon found himself in the embrace of his family. 

Asgore whispered in his tears, “Son how are you here? We’ve missed you so…”

Frisk was clasping onto Asriel crying, “Asriel, how did you get back?”

The Prince was shocked at first, then began to cry and hold his family close.

Ray, the boy, was forgotten for a moment as the other monsters watched the reunion. That is, until a movement was heard followed by a smack and a cry of pain.   
Looking back, it was to everyone’s surprise that Ray had taken the chance of getting hurt and ran right through the bones towards the crying huddle. He was bunched up on the floor in tears. Undyne attempted to contain him when Asriel said suddenly, “Leave Ray alone!”

Everyone looked at him in surprise as he ran over to Ray and held him close.

“Oh shoot. Are you ok, Ray?”

Ray looked up and cracked a small smile. “Course I am…bro.”

Gasps went up when this was said. Asriel helped Ray up.

“Asriel,” Toriel wondered, “what are you saying? And who is this human?”

Ray and Asriel looked at each other and Asriel nodded as if they had communicated telepathically. “Ok.”  
He looked up at his family and friends and said, “Mom, Dad, this is Ray. He’s my brother.”

\

The silence that followed this was, once again, broken by Frisk. 

“You don’t have a brother, Asriel.” 

Asgore and Toriel suddenly looked at Frisk and asked her, “Frisk, how do you know Asriel?”  
Frisk suddenly went silent and hung her head.   
The two looked at her and Asriel with shock on their faces. 

Ray and Asriel looked at each other again and Ray spoke up, “Who’s Frisk?”

Frisk looked at Ray with a look of distrust and said, “I happen to be the one who helped free the monsters from the underground. Right, Asriel?”

All looked at Asriel for answers to this enigmatic declaration. But he looked at Frisk with the same blank look as before and shook his head. “I don’t know who you are…”

Frisk’s face dropped and she looked at him like he had betrayed her. 

“You….you really don’t remember me Asriel? You followed me throughout the Underground…”

Ray spoke up. “Um…I don’t think so. I was the only human that fell down there…” 

The monsters were confused by this. 

Sans spoke up, ‘kid, i guarantee you, we’ve never seen you before.”

Ray looked up and saw Sans. He and Sans stared at one another for a while until Sans nodded to himself as if he found answers to what he was wondering.

“y’know, i think these guys have been through a lot. maybe we ought to give them some time to rest.”

Frisk looked at the skeleton as if she wanted to object to this, but one look from Sans to her gave her second thoughts. Looking back towards the two wanderers, she realized they did look very exhausted, especially Asriel. So she reluctantly agreed with him. 

After some final hugs and words of love to Asriel and some apologies between Ray and some of the other monsters, Asriel and Ray were moved into a tent and everyone made their way to their own tents. Sleep did not come easy that night, however, except for the Two Wanderers who fell asleep almost instantly.


	4. A Time to Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It soon becomes clear that the Two Wanderers have some things to get off their chest.

Frisk awoke the next day, running out of her tent, searching for Asriel. She was surprised to see that everyone else was up as well. All the others were gathered around Asriel and Ray’s tent. Everyone was seated around the tent, anxious for the two sleepers inside to awake, but reluctant, all the same, to wake them from an apparently much needed slumber. Everyone, that is, except Sans. He was not present. He was probably still sleeping, Frisk decided. 

Frisk, after some hushed “Good Mornings” to her friends, sat down with them and joined the vigil. No noise came from the tent.  
Everyone was wanting to speak to the two travelers and had questions for both. Where had Asriel been? How was he alive (or how was he not a flower?)? Who was Ray? How long had he and Asriel know each other? Did Ray know the other monsters? And, most importantly, why were they both wounded and crazed last night?

Almost half an hour had passed, before a familiar voice spoke up, none too quiet. 

“watcha waiting for?”

Frisk shushed Sans without turning her head. “We’re waiting for Asriel and Ray to wake up.”

A short silence followed this until a snicker was heard behind the backs of the monsters. Frisk looked back to shush what she thought was San’s laughter but she was instead met with Ray, Asriel and Sans all standing there. They all looked tired, as if they had used up a large amount of emotional energy but all three seemed much more relaxed than Frisk had seen them. Asriel stood with his arms at his sides with a kind smile on his face. Ray had his arms crossed and had an odd look in his eyes. Sans stood with his hands in his pockets with a big amused grin. 

Frisk squealed in surprised and all the other monsters turned and saw the three missing persons and instantly began to question them. 

“SANS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

“Asriel, my child, did you sleep well?”

Sans looked at the two wanderers and said. “I think they should be able to answer your questions. You want answers? Ask them.”

Both Ray and Asriel looked at each other and, sighing with acceptance, Ray stated, “Frisk, Toriel and Asgore, please follow us to the river. We have to talk to ya’ll in private…” Asriel nodded. 

The three named persons looked at each other questioningly and walked up to the two. The other three would’ve protested why they couldn’t come, but Sans stated, “you other three…are gonna have to talk to me.” Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys looked at Sans but accepted it and the two groups separated. 

\

As the Dreemurrs and the Humans walked to the river, Asriel found himself hand-in-hand with his parents, with Frisk walking right by his side. He was surprised by this but accepted it happily enough so long as Ray enjoyed it too. Ray, however, had apparently not noticed the arrangement and walked alone in front of the group, his head refusing to look back. Most of the others thought that Ray was just focused on the small trail, but Asriel knew Ray better. He knew that Ray was doing his best to keep from crying and, if his face were turned towards the others, they would see his reddened eyes…

\

Suddenly there came a spot where Ray stopped and breathed deep and said finally, “We’re here.”  
The group had been led to a shallow creek that babbled over smooth stones. The others sat down in the short grass while Asriel walked up to Ray and whispered in his ear. Ray looked at Asriel and nodded as if answering a question. Asriel took him by the arm and led him to the group and sat him down and sat down next to him. 

A short, awkward silence followed until Frisk asked, “So…you two are brothers?” 

Asriel and Ray both nodded and both stated it was true.

Toriel asked, “How long have you two known each other?”

Ray scrunched up his eyebrows and looked like he wasn’t sure but Asriel stated fairly quickly, “About 11 years.” 

The three interrogators breathed in in surprise. “Eleven years??” Toriel asked. “But we lost you so, so long ago, Asriel…” Asgore spoke up, “How-how are you alive, son?” 

Asriel looked at Ray as if cueing him and the human brother took a deep breath before stating, “We-uhh….We aren’t from here.” 

Silence. The three questioners waited for an explanation to this.

Ray stumbled on. “We are not from this timeline.”

At this, Frisk seemed to understand better but she was still surprised at how Asriel was still himself and how he had been siblings with this person.  
Ray and Asriel could both see that their explanation hadn’t quite made sense so Ray said, “Maybe it would help if I told you how we met.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brace yourselves for some major flashbackage for next few chapters


	5. Reminiscence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray begins his story of his life in the Underground. (All the 1st person narration is from his perspective.)  
> Also, new original character!

I was very young when I first came to Mt. Ebbot. Probably around 5 years old. I don’t really remember how I fell into the Underground that day, but I did. I fell into a massive cavern and I remember seeing nothing but darkness until everything went to black. 

I woke up to something soft tickling my nose. As I opened my eyes, I saw a strange face looking down on me. It almost looked like a goat. A white goat with emerald eyes like a human’s and white sharp teeth. He was also clothed, and, unlike a goat, stood on his hind legs and had actual hands and feet instead of hooves. It was his hand that had tickled me so for, even though he had four fingers and an opposable thumb like me, his hands were covered in the same short, white fur that covered him everywhere else. He was about my age; young, just barely not a toddler and just mastering some elemental language.

“Are you ok?” he asked me.

“No,” I whimpered and cried because I did hurt all over.  
I think it was my crying that brought Toriel and Asgore to us. I don’t remember much from then on for a while except for a few images. It wasn’t until I had been in the Underground for a few months that I was officially adopted into the Dreemurr Royal Family…

\

In the grove by the river, Asgore and Toriel were perplexed by this and couldn’t believe what they were hearing. But they did not interrupt and waited instead to hear the rest of the story. Frisk, too, didn’t interrupt. But, unlike the King and Queen, she believed Ray’s story and listened to his life story.

\

The years went by and me and Asriel grew very close, which made sense because not only was he the very first friend I made in the Underground, we also seemed to be the same age, roughly. Sure, he would most likely outlive me by a few thousand years, give or take a century or two. But, in the years of growing up, me and him were pretty much equal. We did a lot together: bug hunting, playing pretend games, drawing…

I also grew closer to my new parents and I grew to love and trust them. My mother was the wise and gracious Queen of Monsters and expert pie baker. My father the kind and mighty King, who loved to play with his sons and tend to his garden. 

For a year or so, it was just the four of us. The Dreemurrs…

However, time moves on and life always finds another way to spread.

I remember me and Asriel playing around with a video camera when our parents called us into the castle. We both ran into the great home and ran into the living room, tripping over each other. Asgore was standing next to Toriel and she was carrying something.

Asgore knelt to me and Asriel and said in a somewhat hushed tone. “Shh…Quiet now children. You’ll wake her.”

Confused, me and Asriel looked at the bundle Toriel was holding. She gently undid a fold of the soft cloth and revealed a small, white head.

“Children,” Toriel whispered, “this is your new baby sister. Her name is Torigal.” At this she looked at Asgore with a look that said, “Are you sure?” He only responded with a proud grin that said, “Yes.”

More time went on and we all grew under our parents’ loving care. Torigal grew into a sweet young boss monster, much like her mom in many ways. And, like her mother, was extremely protective of me and Asriel. She always loved to wear dresses, even as a preteen. 

Me and Asriel grew up into quite the rowdy bunch. We would explore the caverns of Waterfall and the machinery of Hotland all day. We would cause a lot of trouble playing pranks on local monsters. I remember one time me and Asriel were exploring Waterfall and had just left the Temmie Village. It was one of our first visits there and it left an impact on me to say the least. 

“Hoi! I’m Temi!” I would mimic them to get chuckles out of my bro. It worked and we had quite a long walk until we got to New Home. When we got there, there was a commotion at the gates. Several members of the Royal Guard were standing at the gate, laughing. Curious to see what was the issue, me and Asriel made our way over to the crowd and just managed to see what the hulabaloo was about. 

There was a young, fish-like monster brandishing what appeared to be a magical blue spear. She was armored in what looked to be armor made from homespun materials that she had crafted herself. She was marching around in a circle shouting, “FIGHT ME! C’MON! ARE YOU ALL COWARDS!?” This challenge went up with a bunch of laughs from the surrounding guards. She made a few lunges at some of the guards, only to be pummeled by magic and thrown to the ground in defeat. However, she never stopped. She never gave up. 

Something in me stirred to see her struggle against those monsters that were so much bigger than her. It wasn’t fair, I thought, that she wouldn’t get a fair try. She should fight someone her own size. Someone like me.

Me and Asriel would sometimes wrestle with each other just for fun. I usually ended up winning for some reason. I felt like I could face this challenger with some degree of confidence.

I pushed through the crowd, much to Asriel’s dismay and I walked forward as the jeering of the Royal Guard quieted suddenly and whispers ran through the throng. 

“I’ll fight you.” I called. 

The young monster turned towards me and seemed to be taken aback at my offer.

“You….you’re…Ray the Human aren’t you?”

“The one and only. Still want to fight?”

The challenger seemed somewhat anxious. For what reason, I wasn’t sure. But when she seemed to realize I meant what I said, a huge smile showed up on her face, revealing her fangs. “Alright then, Human. Prepare yourself!” She conjured up another spear so that she held two spears in her hands.

I looked around for something to fight with and then I saw My Sword. 

\

At this point in the story, Ray unsheathed the sword that he was carrying in his scabbard still. The end was still broken off, but he still held it proudly. 

“I saw it hanging outside someone’s stone home. An old, rusty, human sword. Fairly short too. But one look at it and I knew it had to be mine…call it destiny if you will….”

He stared at the sword and seemed to remember something less than joyful and his expression became haggard for a second, almost as if he was an old war Veteran and was being reminded of battles long ago. Asgore noted this look.

After a second of staring, Asriel shook Ray’s shoulder and spoke his name somewhat urgently. Ray shuddered as if he was being drawn out of something then hurriedly sheathed the sword. 

“Anyway,” he said, trying to resume. “I saw it there and knew, for better or worse, it was mine.”

\

I ran over and picked up the sword, holding it in front of me. The challenger scoffed. “Hah! You call that a weapon? I’ve seen you humans wield swords 9 times that length!”

I pointed the sword at her and asked her, “What’s your name?”

She proudly said, “I am Undyne! The monster that never gives up!”

I swung the sword, testing its strength. “Well then, Undyne. I think we’ve been talking for long enough. Let’s do this already.”

She flipped her spears and said, “With pleasure.”

I began to notice the crowd had gotten much larger and, even though I felt confident, a part of me still wavered when I couldn’t see or hear Asriel anywhere.

My attention was brought back to Undyne when she uttered her war cry.

“NGAHHHH! Come on, Human! Let’s end this right here, right now!”

I clutched my sword and held it above my head. “Come on then!” I shouted. 

Undyne threw a spear at me with such force, I barely had time to dodge it. I felt its strange magic surge past me, just missing me. 

I was so distracted by the spear sailing past me, I never saw the second one until I felt it hit me.

I had never experienced a magic attack before. I had gotten hurt physically many times by clumsiness or accident. But this sensation was entirely new to me. Although the spear just touched my shoulder, I felt my entire body shudder under the blow. It barely did anything to my skin, but within me, I felt the shock and weakness of pain spread throughout me. 

My Soul was wounded. This had never happened to me before and the shock of the attack brought me to my knees as my vision blurred. I looked up to see Undyne grinning over me, about to throw another spear in her zeal. I felt power course through me as I realized how much I didn’t want to lose and with all my strength, I slashed my sword against her side. 

There was a blow and a disturbing clashing sound as she flinched at the attack and fell back. After watching her get completely pummeled by magic blow after magic blow, I was surprised that this little slash from a sword had gotten her so badly. She fell back and clutched her side and looked at me with a shocked look on her face. She angrily conjured up another spear and would’ve sent another one towards me, if a voice hadn’t rang out. 

“Stop this! Now!”

I looked up to see Asgore walking up with a concerned and displeased look in his face. 

All the monsters withdrew and bowed their heads. Even Undyne gasped and bowed respectively. 

“What is the meaning of all this?” Asgore called out to the group. 

All monsters were silent and dared not speak a word. Undyne held her head down sullenly and, rather ashamed, I thought. 

Toriel ran up and, seeing me on my knees, ran to me. “My child, are you alright? Let me heal you.”

I looked up and saw Asriel standing in the ring, looking both embarrassed and relieved. 

Asgore looked at Undyne and said to her. “What possessed you, child, to strike my son and the only Human in the Underground?”

Undyne hung her head and seemed both afraid and ashamed. 

After Toriel healed me and I felt my strength return, I stood up and said as clear and relaxed as I could. “It’s ok, Dad. We were just...having a friendly duel.”

Asgore looked at me with a look on his face that spoke volumes and said, “Did you challenge her, son?”

I gulped but spoke as steadily and truthfully as I could. “She wanted a challenge and wasn’t given a fair opportunity by the Royal Guard. So, I accepted her challenge to give her a fair fight.”

Asgore pondered this and looked towards Undyne. “Is this true?”

Undyne gathered up her courage and said, “It’s true…Your Highness.” 

Asgore looked around at the gathered monsters and looked at me and Undyne, then glanced at Asriel, who was nervously wringing his long, droopy ears. 

Asgore looked back at me and finally said, “Well, it would seem that no permanent harm has been done.” Toriel looked up at him questioningly. 

“Undyne, you are free to go. But next time, please, come to the castle and ask permission next time you wish for a duel. We don’t want anyone getting too badly hurt, now do we?”

Undyne looked up at the unexpected hope and nodded, “Thanks, Your Majesty.”

Asgore turned to the throng of Monsterkind surrounding us and said, “You are free to go about your business.” 

The monsters dispersed rapidly. 

Undyne looked at me with an unsure expression on her face. I walked up to her, and offered my hand. “Good fight.”

Undyne looked at my hand and decided to accept. “Good fight. Not bad. Not bad at all.” She walked away and vanished into the crowd. 

I was just about to walk back up to the castle with my family when I felt a Presence. I heard a voice in my mind. I didn’t hear it exactly but I could understand the message. 

'She’s right, kid. Not bad. Not bad at all.' 

I turned sharply and looked at the crowd of monsters. I almost gave up looking when I saw Him.

A short shadowy figure leaned against a pole by the road into the Capital. It was dressed in a blue jacket and had a hood obscuring its face. Its hands were nestled in the deep pockets of its trousers. When it seemed to notice me there, to my shock, I saw a white skeletal hand emerge from its pocket and give me a silent “thumbs up”. It also raised its head and more light shone on its face. I gasped. It was the face of a skeleton with a massive grin. 

I felt someone pulling me away. I looked and saw Asriel pointing up the road. “Come on, Ray. It’s time to go home!” I stumbled along and followed him. 

'Hehe…I’ll see you around, kid…'

I looked back and blinked and was amazed to see that the Short Skeleton was not there. He had simply vanished. 

I followed Asriel to the Gate, but stooped and grabbed my discarded sword off the sparkling road. I decided I would clean it. And I would train with it.


	6. Another Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray learns more about himself and the Underground he lives in.  
> Spooky Skele-fam!

My family all scolded me in their own way after the encounter with Undyne. Toriel told me how she was gravely worried that I had both hurt myself and hurt Undyne too seriously (although any damage done was too much for her.). Asgore told me how he didn’t want me to be picking fights with monsters. However, he did seem like he was proud of me nonetheless for being brave. Torigal was furious that I had even fought someone and couldn’t seem to decide on who she was more angry at: me for fighting Undyne or Undyne for fighting me or, even, at herself for sleeping through the whole thing. Asriel told me that he understood why I did what I did but he still told me that I should’ve been more patient and waited until either I or him had gotten better at fighting. To my surprise, it seemed like the biggest embarrassment to him was that he didn’t fight with me against Undyne. I consoled him in this.

“Asriel, there will be other fights. I’m a human in a monster world. Next time a real fight comes up, you can be by my side, bro.” Asriel hugged me after that. He’s a real hugger. 

The next place me and Asriel explored was at the Dump at the bottom of Waterfall. I was looking through the trash. I usually did this to see if there was any relics from my old life that I would remember seeing. But this time, I found something different. Digging through an avalanche of refuse, my hand gripped something hard and it seemed to fit in my hand easily. Pulling my hand out, it came up with a small, metal thing with a trigger and a grip. I recognized it as a gun. A human gun. I felt a strange feeling echo through me. A feeling akin to how I felt when I first held my sword, but also different. The sword, I had told myself, was a normal thing to carry down here. Many monsters carried different kinds of knives and daggers and the like. This gun though…was different. Firearms were seen as entirely human inventions, meant for physical damage and, as far as could be told, incapable of being made with magic. It was, blatantly, a weapon only a human would use. 

As I held the weapon in my hand, I did not notice Asriel walking up behind me. 

“Watcha got there, Ray?”

I turned quickly, still holding the gun in my hand. Asriel saw the weapon and gasped. 

“What-Where did you find that Ray?” 

I pointed to the pile of garbage I had just climbed down from. “In there…”

After some deliberation on what to do with the gun, I suggested we see the Head Royal Scientist and ask him how it operates. Asriel seemed willing to do this but he seemed nervous. I assured him that I wouldn’t hurt anyone with it, and I meant it.

After we walked for not too far, we found ourselves at the laboratory on the western edge of Hotland. Asgore had shown me and Asriel around here several times and we knew the head Scientist. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too busy. 

We both walked in and were told by a young, yellow lizard – monster that the head Scientist was in the middle of an experiment but would be up soon to see to his royal visitors. So, me and Asriel sat down on some chairs and rested for a bit. When the young assistant left and no one else seemed to be around, I pulled out the gun and gazed on it with curiosity. 

We waited for a long while, but eventually, we heard a hissing sound and, looking up, I saw the head scientist come through the door. 

The door was expelling some hot steam which shrouded the opening of the door. I saw a tall, slender silhouette take up most of the door’s entrance. 

He was carrying a notepad along with an odd kind of laser pointer. He was dressed in a black suit that trailed down to his legs in a double tail and wore a narrow set of glasses. He was also skeletal in form, although his face was much more smoothed out and looked like a pill with a thin smile and two small yet bright eyes fixed in it. 

"Ahh yes, the royal visitors…" he said gracefully enough. Clearly, he had been working on something downstairs but he seemed to be glad enough to take a break from whatever labor he had been doing.

He gazed at us two. “Asriel and Ray Dreemurr…what brings you here today?” 

We both stood up and I held my newfound item forward, careful not to put my finger on the trigger. 

“We found this in the Dump in Waterfall,” Asriel said. 

The Scientist held the gun curiously, examining it. “And what did you want to know about this? It is a human gun, but there is not much to tell, I’m afraid.” 

I felt embarrassed for troubling Dr. Gaster, but I decided to speak up anyway. “We-I was wondering…if it was still in working order…”

Gaster gazed at me with a deep expression. “Now why would you want this weapon? Do you feel you are…in danger?”

Asriel looked at me with the same question in his face. Obviously, he was wondering that, too.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure why. I felt safe enough, even after my encounter with Undyne. I told myself that it was just a silly idea: maybe just to shoot plates with for fun.  
But…something in me winced at this question. Did I feel threatened? No! Of course not! Nearly every monster in the Underground was my friend, or at least respected me. They wouldn’t dare… 

But what if I wasn’t afraid of monsters attacking? What if I was afraid of…?

Either way though, I felt like it was mine. Just like the sword. I felt…drawn to them, as if they were meant to be mine and had to be used by me sometime…

Gaster looked at me in a rather creepy way until his head snapped up as if he heard someone calling for him. He looked as if he were listening to something for a while and then nodded to an unheard question. 

He pointed across the hall and spoke up, “Children, let me introduce you to my sons,”

I looked around behind me and saw two skeletons walking down the hall. One was skinny, like his father, yet had a more angular face than him. He seemed to be younger than me and Asriel, but he walked with his head held high and had a confident manner. He was wearing a brown clean shirt with shorts of much the same make and heavy boots to…well, boot. He also wore a crimson scarf around his neck. 

The other skeleton was much more broader and seemed older than both his brother and me and Asriel. He had a much smoother skull and wore a blue-grey jacket along with dark grey pants and what looked like to be moccasins. He walked with his hands in his pockets and seemed to be a laid-back character. He was the skeleton that I had seen in the streets after my fight with Undyne. My heartbeat raced.

Gaster walked to his two sons and placed a hand on both of their shoulders. 

Proudly, he said, “Dreemurr children, allow me to introduce you to my sons, Sans and Papyrus.”


	7. Things That Might Happen When You Fight Physics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Two Wanderers go back to camp. Ray is hurting...

Ray, Asriel, Frisk, Asgore and Toriel were still sitting by the river when they were disturbed by Sans. He had suddenly appeared behind them and said, “hate to bother this storytelling, but we’re all finished up at camp.”

Ray looked up and saw that Sans was accompanied by the other three monsters and realized that San’s explanation of the situation must’ve been a lot more to the point and that he and his group must’ve come to their conclusions and accepted the situation much faster than the his own group. It made sense, it was the Dreemurrs that would be most directly impacted by this.

Papyrus was standing with his signature look of “everything will be alrightness”. Undyne was looking at Ray with a much more respectful look and seemed to be much more used to his presence. Alphys was full of questions, it seemed, but she seemed like she would wait until she had a more proper time to ask.

Asgore and Toriel also became more aware of the time and with some embarrassment, it seemed, stood up and apologized both to the waiting monsters and to Ray.

Asgore spoke up. “Yes, of-of course. Our apologies, Ray. We will have to hear more of this…later...” Asgore had a look of bewilderment on his face that Toriel also shared. The story of this Other Life had shaken them, not to mention thoughts of them having another biological child. They walked back to camp silent and thoughtful. 

Frisk, however seemed to look at Ray and Asriel with much the same look as before and she attempted speaking to them. 

“What happened?” 

Ray looked up like he was shaken out of a dream. “Huh? When? After we met Sans and Papyrus?”

“Well, what happened to them? To everybody? Why are you here and not there?”

Asriel uncomfortably shifted his feet and the Two Wanderers both looked away, saying nothing. 

Sans walked up beside Frisk and patted her arm. “kid, they’re still really tired and i’m sure you’ll hear everything sooner or later.” He winked. “let’s just 'peel' back to camp and get some grub”

Frisk seemed to struggle with this but Asriel spoke up for one of the first times and said, “Frisk?” 

She looked at him questioningly.

He nervously said “is everything alright?”

Frisk stood silently and without a word, ran over to the prince and hugged him. She was crying.

Asriel didn’t know how to respond to the hug and Ray seemed surprised as well and was about to say something until he seemed to think better of it and he simply dug his hands in his pockets and walked down the path towards camp, looking over his shoulder as Frisk embraced his brother. 

Asriel, after the initial shock, gave in and embraced Frisk back. To her surprise, Frisk heard him say, “Frisk…it’s ok…I’m not gonna leave this time.” 

Frisk looked up in surprise then whimpered quietly and held Asriel close whispering “Thank God Thank God Thank God….”

Toriel, hearing Frisk crying, was awoken from her inner thoughts and she turned around to see her two children embracing. Her soul was riven at this and she covered her mouth and held back a sob. 

After the crying had subsided, Frisk walked over to Toriel, hand in hand with Asriel. Toriel embraced both of them and, taking them both by the hand, walked up the path with them and the group all walked up the path towards the camp.

All except Ray. 

Ray had walked off the trail at some point and was sitting under a mossy rock, looking down into the river valley, tears running down his face and holding his broken sword in his hands, fingers wrapped around the hilt. His breaths came in rags and his face was a red, wet mess. His shoulders were heaving from his sobs. 

His mind was full of dark thoughts and memories that brought no joy to him. Even the happy memories of his past childhood were tainted by what had happened a few years later…

He wallowed in Evil Memory and no Light came to him. 

He ran his fingers along the blade of the sword.

One shadow among the trees shifted against the wind, a smoldering oppressive heat coming upon Ray. He heard ideas whispered into his mind; ideas of escape, self-pity and hopelessness...

Suddenly Ray felt a hand on his back and he flinched.

“relax, kid.”

He relaxed and sat up a bit straighter.

“Hey Sans…”

Sans sat down next to Ray and sighed, looking at the sunlight valley as the high sun painted everything bright colors and the shadows were cozy and inviting. The oppressive heat had gone and, although dark thoughts still hovered hesitantly in Ray's mind, he suddenly remembered the happy memories that he had had growing up in the Underground. He wondered if he had not been able to remember anything lovely and good while he sat under that rock, consumed by self-sorrow...

“nice spot you stumbled onto.” Sans spoke.

Ray sniffed and wiped his face. “Th-thanks, man…I bet the sunset looks great from here…”

“i bet.”

The river bellow in the valley roared as the stream fed into it and song birds sang in the trees and the wind blew. Ray and Sans didn’t say anything. Both sat with their eyes closed, opening them periodically to admire the valley below complete with another mountain range immediately across a plain and a large city just in sight to their right.

Squirrels barked in the trees above them. Dogs barked in the valley below in countless backyards. A plane soared overhead it being almost silent as it was too high to hear, a trail of crystals drawn across the sky. A fox even walked past the two and stared at them for a moment before moving along on his own business. 

Eventually Sans broke the silence. He sounded uncharacteristically clear and had authority behind his voice. 

“Ray. You really should come back to camp now. Your friends and family are there, waiting on ya.”

Ray looked down. He knew that voice. The Judge was working. He said quietly, “They aren’t my family, though Sans. They aren’t the ones I knew growing up…”

Sans sat quietly. He was listening and wouldn't interrupt someone when they were baring their Soul to him.

“They all are strangers to me, almost. All of them. Mom is constantly insecure and clingy...I mean more than I’m used to… Dad walks around with guilt in his Soul. Alphys is stressed. Undyne…well she’s so suspicious of everything. Me and Frisk are complete strangers. Papyrus…well…actually, he seems about the same as ever, haha…Still so optimistic.”

Sans chuckled and nodded.

"Although...I can't help but feel like there's something...missing in him, like something isn't quite there that was in my dimension..."

Sans' smile faded.

“And you…”

Sans looked at Ray.

“Sans…you’re…You’re not the same either. I mean, you’re older, yeah, but it’s more than just age. You’re…tired and you just…don’t seem to care at all anymore.”

Sans was silent.

“Sans…I don’t know what happened but…I can feel it. Something happened to you. You’ve seen things, haven’t you?”

Sans closed his eyes and sighed. “kid, i don’t think now’s the time or place for that story.”

Ray sat thinking then decided to play his card.

“With Gaster gone, I guess you were left to monitor the Time Stream alone, huh?”

Sans’ eyes went dark and he looked at Ray and said in a dark voice, “Kid, you better watch what you say…some people don’t like it when others peek into business too big for them to understand…” 

Ray looked at Sans with a worried expression...but then he smiled and chuckled.

“Almost got me-“

“Hehehe, i DID get you for a second there”

San’s eyes went back to normal, his prank finished. 

His serious tone stayed, though.

“Ray, you’re not thinking about doing something...hasty, are you?”

Ray looked at Sans with a blank look and first. Then he caught on and denied it quickly.

“No, of course not.”

“Then why were you holding your sword?”

Ray realized his sword still lay next to him and he hurriedly sheathed it.

“No reason.”

Sans nodded and didn’t bring it up anymore. Instead he changed the subject.

“Y’know…you weren’t 100% correct when you said you had no family here. Asriel is still your brother and he needs you, Ray. If not for yourself, don’t you think you should stick around at least for your brother’s sake?”

Ray lowered his head and breathed out a sigh as the thought hit home.

Ray and Sans sat watching the trees sway in the wind and Ray stood up, sighing resignedly. “Well, I guess you’re right. Probably should get going now.”

Sans looked up and groaned, “aww, but kid, I just got comfortable…” 

The Judge had been replaced by the Legendary Fartmaster once again. 

Ray rolled his eyes, smirked, and said, “C’mon, lazybones. It’s not like we gotta walk, right? Surely you know a shortcut by now.”

Sans chuckled and snapped his fingers and the two vanished from the slope.


	8. Fight Me!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray gets into a duel with Undyne and reveals some of his secrets...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always hear "Spear of Justice" play in my head when I read this scene xD

That afternoon, everyone broke up camp and all the tents and food were packed up into the cars. 

Frisk was excited to hear that Sans and Alphys were both going to be around more often with the original group. Apparently, Alphys had been able to convince her peers that her research and experiments could be conducted at home without much hassle.

Sans could of course be a YouTuber anywhere. He decided though that he would be doing more vlogs, since people wanted to see how an average day went with the Monsters; also, this allowed him to spend more time with his friends and family.

Frisk thought of how not only was everyone going to be closer but….She looked at Asriel. She was happy to have Him back with those that loved him.

Asriel was talking to Asgore and Toriel about something and seemed like his discussion with them was very private indeed. He was using his arms to extenuate his points and made several gestures towards where Ray sat.

Ray was sitting apart from the group and was alone, until Undyne walked up to him and started talking to him…

\

Ray was sitting on a flat rock, wondering about his future. Surely Asriel would move in with his family…but since Asgore and Toriel were no longer together, which would he live with? ‘Also’, Ray wondered, ‘what will happen to me? Will I be able to stay with Asriel? Will this dimension’s Dreemurrs accept me?’

His thoughts were interrupted by a tall shadow looming over him. 

“Hey you.” A gruff voice said.

Ray recognized the voice and looked up and asked, “Yeah, Undyne? What can I do for you?”

Undyne stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Ray curiously. “Someone told me that you and I duel a lot in your…other world.”

Ray nodded. “A bit, yeah. Why you ask?” ‘Oh boy….’

Undyne looked down at Ray. “You good at it?”

Ray snorted. Undyne looked confused, if maybe a little offended.

“Well…I don’t know. I’m okay I guess.” He smiled at the warrior towering above him.

“What? You bored?” he challenged.

Undyne grinned. “Are you?”

Ray smirked and slowly stood up, cracking his knuckles as he did so.

He reached his hand out as if he were asking her for an arm wrestle. Undyne was impressed. An old Royal Guard gesture. Maybe this kid did know a thing or two.

She reached out and reciprocated the gesture. The two had their arms embraced for a moment…

Suddenly, with an ear-shattering “NGAAHHHH!”, Undyne threw Ray up in the air at a small arc!

The other monsters looked at the shout and saw Ray flying through the air towards the forest.

All the onlookers gasped and made to protest at this and some expressed concern for Ray for his inevitable painful landing.

All that is except Asriel and Sans who looked on with expectant smiles and amused grins respectively.

Undyne yelled in victory at her apparent victorious move when she heard laughter echo from the shadow of the trees. She looked at where she expected to see Ray laying on the ground in shock. Instead, she saw slide marks that led to where he was standing, unscathed with an amused look on his face. He was walking back casually, with his sword in his hand.

Undyne was impressed. He had landed on his feet and was ready for the next move, most likely his.

“Is that all, Undyne?” He said with a chuckle. “I expected more,” he goaded.

At this statement, she summoned a spear and held it in her hands.

Ray grinned and raised his left arm, the one not holding his broken sword. He had some kind of brace on it. He waved his arm high in the air with a flourish and suddenly, with a wavering hum, a shield materialized attached to his arm. It glowed with a deep blue light and wavered as if it were made of energy. It had a magical aura around it, however, and all who saw it were amazed.

Undyne gawked at the shield. She had never seen anything like it. She would’ve asked where Ray got it when suddenly he brought his arm down and, holding his shield in front and his sword trailing behind him, he charged. He charged straight towards Undyne. 

Undyne saw the charge form and she already was throwing her spears at Ray. The green bolts sailed past him as he continued to run, dodging some, blocking some with his shield, which, to Undyne’s surprise, didn’t send the bolts ricocheting off, they simply disappeared into the shield.

Suddenly, Ray broke off his charge and swerved off to his left, towards the flat rock he had been sitting on. With a small hop, he was on it. With a massive leap, he was sailing towards Undyne, his shield moved to the side to make room for his sword which was suddenly about to come smashing down from above. 

She saw the attack coming and for a moment seemed like she was concerned. But then she grinned confidently and brought up her spear and blocked the strike easily enough, pushing Ray to the side and unbalancing him temporarily. Undyne shot out some bolts towards Ray’s tripped up form. He saw the bolts coming and brought up his shield as quick as he could, blocking all but one of the spears. He grunted in pain. One had got him in the knee. 

“HA!” Undyne triumphantly called out.

Ray looked up and gritted his teeth. He swung his sword at Undyne’s legs and managed to damage her. 

She gasped and bent over and Ray grabbed her by the neck and threw her down onto the ground. 

Alphys gasped and shrieked. Frisk was begging Ray to stop. Toriel and Asgore both were calling out that the fight must end. Papyrus shouted encouragement to Undyne. 

Ray and Undyne both were on the ground and looked at each other, wondering if the other would call a truce. They saw in the other the answer. “Hell no. This ain’t over!”

They both jumped up and prepared for the next round. This time, Undyne was faster. She brought out a spear and knocked aside Ray’s shield and, with her other arm, brought down a spear in the other hand. The audience gasped as they prepared for the impact. 

Ray, seeing that his shield was down, reacted quickly. He let his sword drop and shot his hand up.

Undyne’s strike suddenly was halted!

Everyone was speechless as they couldn’t believe what they were seeing!

Undyne’s spear had stopped and hovered in the air, coming out of her grip. Her empty fist had landed in Ray’s outstretched grip and he held her arm in place. The other hand had dropped his shield and was stretched out towards the floating spear. His hand…was glowing with magic! 

Undyne watched in shock as he made a motion with his arm and threw the spear off into the distance.

Acting quickly, she brought her other fist down on Ray. He blocked the blow with his arm and there the two were, locked in a struggle, Undyne desperately trying to bring her arms down on Ray, Ray pushing up with all his might. They were stuck in this position, wrestling each other, shaking with exertion and grunting from effort.

This may have gone on for much longer until suddenly the two were thrown back from each other and rings of bright fire circled them, fencing them in and separating the two combatants.

Undyne swore exhaustedly in confusion.

Ray, however had been knocked back onto the ground and he groaned. Then he laughed and said, “Really dude?”

The rings of fire swarmed away from the two and wreathed themselves around Asriel’s upraised arms. 

His countenance had changed slightly. He mostly looked the same, Asriel with a once-amused-now-bored-but-still-mildly-amused face. His face, however, had strange black marks on it, wrapped around his neck and nearly reaching up to his eyes. His eyes too had darkened into black slits with white pupils, the opposite of his normal eye color. His horns seemed longer too. Frisk’s heart thumped loudly and she couldn’t stop staring…

However, the fire soon was extinguished and the marks on Asriel’s face vanished and his horns shrank to a more modest length. He crossed his arms and clicked his tongue in sarcastic disappointment at Ray. 

Ray was sitting up now and he jokingly said to his brother. “C’mon dude, I was winning!”

Asriel had a false air of superiority and said, like a referee, “You were taking too long.”

Ray muttered something under his voice and rolled his eyes. Asriel had a small smile and snickered to himself. 

Undyne stood up with an expression on her face that mirrored perfectly her shouted question. “What the HELL did you do?!” 

Ray stood with a half-smile seemingly permanently plastered on his face. 

“I used both magic and strength to block your assault. Much like what you do.”

Undyne wasn’t having it. “But HOW!? I haven’t ever seen a human use magic before!”

Ray shrugged. “Long story. Maybe I’ll tell it to you someday.”

Asriel guffawed at a memory. Ray turned to him. “What?”

Asriel snickered and shook his head dismissively, his ears flopping around, as if to say “Nothing.”

Ray smiled and rolled his eyes at his bro’s randomness, much like Asriel often did for him as well.

Asgore walked up. “Be that as it may, still, it is nonetheless remarkable that you know magic and are able to use it so easily. How did you learn that?”

Ray looked down half-embarrassed and said, “Well…I had a good teacher. He was an…old fart, but he was a good teacher, re-guard-less.” 

Ray’s hidden message had gone over most of the heads of those present. But Frisk heard his implication.

Fart…Old Fart…good teacher….Legendary Fart Master…

…Sans. 

Frisk looked at Sans. He was standing next to Asriel with an amused look on his face. Clearly he caught the pun too but he also caught something else in what Ray had said because he had a look that had a question or two along with his mental laughs.

Ray’s pun, however was caught by most present and he was rewarded from groans from Undyne, Papyrus and Alphys, Patient facepalms by Asgore and Asriel, and laughs from Toriel, Frisk and Sans. 

Ray beamed proudly and bowed.


	9. Should We Stay or Should We Go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The camping trip is at an end. What will happen to Ray and Asriel now?

Later that day, all the tents had been rolled up and put away and the cars were reloaded with their gear. Ray was standing next to Asriel, the two Wanderers keeping their voices low. They were talking about where they would live. 

“Frisk lives with Mom, so she already has someone to keep her company…” Ray had started.

“…but Mom would be really upset if I didn’t stay close to her. I am her natural kid, anyway.”

Ray smirked. Asriel asked, “What?”

“Kid…Goat…~?” Ray winked and Asriel groaned but still smiled. Ever since Ray had re-learned about goats in the Overland from Sans and Toriel, he had been assaulting Asriel with goat related puns due to their similar morphology. 

“Oh my God, Ray…” He groaned with a barely held back smile. 

Ray smiled at another successful joke but his smile left him as he remembered that he and Asriel still had a hard choice ahead of them and were no closer to finding a solution.

Asriel continued, “Dad, however, has no one with him…He may feel pretty lonely especially if we’re here and we don’t stay with him.”

Ray nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah…worse of all, he might convince himself that he deserves it…” 

Asriel and Ray fell silent as they reminisced on Sans’ bringing up to date of current events that first morning they had gotten up. 

They had woken up early, before everyone else, and, seeing Sans, had started opening up to him about their timeline…they had told him almost everything and he, in turn, had told them just as much.

Asgore and the deaths of the Human Children were one of the many topics that he notified them of. They had been crestfallen, especially Ray. Ray couldn’t believe that his Father had…What if one of those children was this timeline’s version of him!? Would his father had killed someone, who, in another time, would have been his son?? 

He had voiced this concern to Sans, but the Skeleton had assured Ray that seeing him in person in the grove with Asriel was 100% for sure the first time he had been seen by the monsters and he had never fallen down in this timeline.

Now, in the sunlit former campsite, Ray and Asriel were beginning to decide that they should stay with Asgore. The two began to make plans for the two to do so when Asriel started and remembered something that seemed to trouble him.

“What is it, bro?”

“Frisk…”

“What about her?”

Asriel looked at where he could see Frisk, talking to Alphys and Undyne about something. 

“She’ll want me to be with her and Mom…”

Ray realized that he had forgotten completely about what they had been told about Frisk…and Flowey.

That was another, even harder pill to swallow that day: The Story of Asriel and the First Fallen Child. 

This story seemed to be the cause of most of the pain and grief wrought throughout the underground and Asriel was shaking at the end of Sans’ account, ending with the final goodbye the temporarily renewed Child Asriel had said to Frisk in that Void Between Timelines. Frisk had apparently told Sans everything. Asriel cried at this and promised himself that he would be there for Frisk when she needed him. Frisk’s crying embrace later that day had cemented this in Asriel’s mind. 

Ray, remembering this, looked at Frisk and was looking at just the right time to see her try to steal another look at the Two Wanderers. When she saw that she was already being glanced at and her attempt at a covert look was immediately busted, she looked away quickly, blushed and tried to diffuse the awkwardness of the situation by walking over to  
Toriel’s side, acting like she was only looking for her. 

Ray looked towards Asriel and said, “You’re right…She’ll want you there…She’ll need you.” 

“So, we’re going with Mom?”

Ray shook his head in exasperation, “I don’t know. What we said about Dad is still true…We couldn’t stay with both unless we separated…”

Ray and Asriel looked at each other and without a word knew that that was unthinkable, at least, not so soon after…

Frisk may have needed Asriel but so did Ray and Asriel needed him close by too. 

Therefore, even after their discussion, the two still weren’t sure what to do.

\

Sans had been sitting just behind the two and, although he couldn’t make out the entire conversation, could tell what Asriel and Ray were debating over.

He quietly got up and walked over to Frisk who had just started walking towards Toriel. Sans pulled up close to the teenaged Ambassador and said, “hey kid, you got time for a quick chat?”

\

Later, once everything had been placed in order, Frisk called Ray and Asriel over to where she was standing with Toriel. She also called for Asgore to come close too. 

Asgore, with an unsure glance towards Toriel, stepped up as well. 

Frisk looked at the group around her and said with a smile, “We’re gonna have everyone at our place for the next few days to celebrate you two being here. Asriel, you and Ray will be staying at me and Mom’s house.”

Ray and Asriel looked at each other with a mix of acceptance and guilt and seemed about to say something when Frisk suddenly said, “And Asgore will be staying, too. In the Spare Room.”

Asgore seemed surprised by this yet also seemed still unsure of his reception. 

Toriel, one could tell, was definitely surprised at this and less than fully pleased. However, with a quiet sigh, she accepted that it was, perhaps, the right thing to do to help welcome Asriel back home. She decided to allow the arrangement for a few days. 

Asriel perked up when he heard his father would be staying with them and, if only for a short time, his family would be back together again. 

Ray shared this emotion and breathed a sigh of relief and grinned gratefully. 

Frisk looked at Ray and addressed him directly. 

“Don’t forget, you still haven’t finished your story.”

Ray’s heart skipped a beat. The Story. Oh...He had been so happy being reunited with his friends and family that he had put the Story away in the back of his mind. Secretly, he had partly wished that he had gotten away with telling the rest of the story. It was a long and almost embarrassing process for him and he wasn’t looking forward to the climax of the story…

However, on the outside, Ray laughed it off and said amiably enough, “Haha, right, of course.”

After this was said, all the groups of monsters that would go their own separate ways said their temporary farewells. It was well-known that they would see each other again fairly soon. But they said goodbye to everyone all the same.

Then the groups took off: Undyne and Alphys, Papyrus and Sans, and then the Dreemurrs…All Five of them.

The cars sped off, leaving Ebbot alone once again to stand watch over the desolate land. The River flowed on. The trees sighed in the wind. The clouds wheeled overhead.  
Another time of peace until the next visitors arrive…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As it seems, I am quite popular on here! I'm just ten away...from a two-digit follower count!  
> haha seriously though, thanks for the support yall! just letting you know there is, in fact, a main plot to this and I promise the plot will thicken in the next few chapters. Just taking it slow in building everything in these first chapters.   
> You'll begin to notice a pick up sometime in the next few chapters. In the meantime, let's enjoy everyone helping our Two Wanderers as they get accustomed to life on the Surface! :D


	10. Home?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Asriel see life on the Surface. Dinner at Toriel's.

Ray and Asriel stepped out of the car as they gazed at their new home. They had driven for only about half an hour when they had entered the suburbs of the City. The roads were lined with a few small gas stations, restaurants and neighborhoods. On the drive, Ray had been glad to see that a new Grillby’s had been built on the Surface. Ray could see both monsters and humans walking in and out of the bar/grill. 

All around were the marks of humanity and monsterkind integrating. 

Grillbys had a billboard advertising the finest of monster foods and human foods along with original cocktails designed by the bartender/owner, Grillby the Fire Monster. 

Humans were growing some Underground plants in their gardens while monsters walked around with clothes advertising human culture; bands, tv shows and movies were all seen. 

The car passed one restaurant with an interesting message: “We love our Monster Friends!” (The exclamation point was an upside down ‘i’). 

As the car drove through town, they were bombarded with honks and arm waving everywhere. It seemed that many people in the town recognized the Dreemurr Car and waved trying to grab the attention of their royal friends. Frisk recognized some of them and waved her hand and mouthed “Hi!!” when she could.

Asriel and Ray were speechless. It almost seemed too good to be true. Humans and Monsters living together in harmony on the Surface. 

Asriel was looking out the window and held back a sniffle looking at the perfection of it all. Frisk noticed his eyes water up and she patted his shoulder and smiled at him when he looked around. Without saying anything, he knew from the look in her eyes that she was telling him that it was all thanks to him. To Frisk, it didn’t matter that he was from another timeline. All that mattered was that Asriel had been gone, trapped underground. Now he was here and now he could live the life Asriel Dreemurr deserved.

Ray was also overjoyed. He was, at first, overwhelmed by how much humans there were. He hadn’t been in a human town in so long… He forgot how much he missed it.

After some time the group made it to the home of Toriel and Frisk. It was a lovely house made of purple shaded brick with many vines along it as well as roses growing along the front garden. Asriel and Ray gazed at the home. It reminded them so much of their old home in the Ruins yet it was shaped differently. It seemed that it had much more rooms and, once they had stepped inside, they saw the lobby or entrance or whatever one would call the first hall was next to a comfy looking living room in front of them with a kitchen and dining area to the left in the same room. Up ahead was a small hallway leading to a bedroom, Toriel’s they would find out later. To the right and behind them went a hall with several rooms along it, some used, some not.

Asgore went to his home to obtain some things for his temporary stay. His home was only a few houses down the street so he would just walk. 

Toriel led Ray and Asriel into the hall to the right and a little behind, passing one room with a twin sized bed and a few posters and a desk and a dresser and a mirror. Frisk’s room apparently.

The next room was another bedroom with another twin sized bed. This room had almost no décor in it. 

Toriel spoke to the two wanderers and said, “This can be your two’s room until we can find more room or beds for you.” 

She seemed disappointed that she couldn’t do much better but Asriel hugged her and said, “It’s ok, Mom. It’s great.”

Ray stopped himself from hugging Toriel and simply smiled and said “Yeah, this’ll work.” He was barely able to keep himself from saying “mom”. He also did fairly well in hiding the cloud that had almost crossed his face from remembering his self-enforced rule to not treat Asgore and Toriel as his parents just yet. 

The next room was another spare room with no bed, but that wasn’t a problem for Asgore, who was happy enough to sleep on the ground with his king-sized mattress, blankets and pillow. Ray hadn’t seen how he had managed to transport the bed materials into the house, but he assumed that magic had taken place in it somehow. He remembered Alphy’s folding bed.

\

Later that day, dinner was served at the Dreemurr residence. Toriel, Asgore, Frisk, Ray and Asriel all sat around the table eating snail pie, salad and drinking hot tea. 

Conversation mostly went around what would be done with Asriel and Ray in the near future.

Toriel of course had to ask, “So how are you two doing in your education? Have you completed high school yet?”

Ray swallowed his mouthful of snail pie (which to everyone’s surprise, he ate with considerable relish) and said, “Well, me and Asriel are in the same grade. We had actually just started our senior year in high school but it was only the end of October when we left, so we didn’t get very far.”

Toriel seemed satisfied with their answer and Frisk was silently happy that the two weren’t going to go to college in the next semester.

“Then, it would seem that you two must be enrolled in the school that we have put together here on the surface,” She smiled. “Oh, you’ll love it! Human history and sciences combined with Monster history and lore. It really is amazing.”

Frisk smiled in agreement but also pointed out that the material was fairly strenuous given that the two races had to learn about two cultures.

Conversation went on how the school was run, the many mixed groups of humans and monsters both among teachers and staff. Frisk shared funny stories about her friends there including Monster Kid’s founding of the Papyrus fan club, Mettaton showing up and giving motivational speeches to the students, Sans Memes popping up around the school.

Ray and Asriel laughed at all of it and found joy in learning about their old new friends. Ray felt so happy being here again with his family. Almost as if nothing ha-.

“Asriel, do you and Ray have anyone waiting for you where you came from?”

Ray choked on his tea. Of course.  
Asgore’s question had dragged Ray and Asriel back to reality and Ray had realized that while he had been day dreaming and in his own thoughts, the talk had lagged and there had been a kind of questioning silence.

It was only a matter of time before the questions began. Ray knew this but he had hoped they would wait until after they had finished eating to ask.

The group tried to help Ray with his choking but a wave of the hand and a quick gulp of water followed by some coughs and he was fine. 

Asgore felt guilty. “I am sorry, Ray. I should not have asked that just yet.”

Toriel gave him a look as if his apology was an understatement.

Ray took a deep breath and said, “No you’re ok…I guess we had to start somewhere. Sorry about the scare.” This last one was to the whole group. 

After some silence, Asriel spoke up. “The answer is no, Dad…No one will miss us…”

Asgore seemed confused by this. “But I thought you said that we had raised you in that other world.”

“You did. But…” Asriel couldn’t finish.

Frisk asked, “Did you two do something that made everyone lose their trust in you?”

Ray looked at Frisk. His face was almost exactly like that face that had pointed a gun at her in rage and fear and sorrow. His voice had sunk into a kind of growl and his countenance had changed into a serious tone that only Sans could rival easily. 

He looked at her and said bluntly, “There’s nobody alive there anymore.”

Frisk’s voice fell to almost a whisper as she asked, “what?”

Ray looked around the group and said, “There wasn’t anyone left. There was nothing but emptiness, silence and dust.”

The sun sank behind the hills as night fell on the plain and Ray covered his face with his hands and Asriel began to cry silently.


	11. Gathering Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray remembers the stirrings that began that awful day...

That Day started like most days.

I woke up happy.  
I was ready to face the day, I thought. I washed myself, put on some clean clothes and ran out of my room to see if anyone else was up. Mom would be up maybe but it was early in the day; everyone would probably be asleep or just now stirring. But it was ok. I woke up happy…

I strapped on my sword and holstered my gun and walked out of New Home towards the Royal Laboratory where I was planning on practicing shooting my gun some more.  
It was almost five years after that day I had first met Gaster’s Sons for the first time and when I had found my gun. Since then, I had been studying it and learning as much about my device as I could. 

I had learned that to shoot it, it required brass cases filled with “gunpowder” and covered in a copper or lead point which would be the projectile or “bullet” that would shoot out. 

After scrounging around in the Dump and Mines throughout Waterfall for a few months, I found the raw materials for the cartridges. Me, Dr. Gaster and Sans (me and him grew to be quite close over the years) worked to fashion some cartridges. We only had enough brass to make 10 cartridges; enough to fill the “magazine” once. Only ten shots and then I would have to make more. However, a book fell into the underground into the dump just a few days later. The human book said that one could recycle the cartridges if one held on to the leftovers stringently. 

Long story short, even though I always had enough materials for only ten shots in my gun, I never ran out of ammo. It certainly helped that I hardly ever shot it. I still felt like it should only be used sparingly and a part of me still felt strange carrying it on me around the Underground. 

I walked along until I made it to the Laboratory where the makeshift gun range was. I didn’t know at the time why Gaster and Sans both encouraged me to practice so much. It seemed weird to me that they would arm a human in their presence. In fact, as time went on, Gaster seemed more and more anxious when I didn’t show up to the range and even Sans, relaxed individual that he was, would constantly encourage me to not only practice shooting the gun but also to duel with Undyne.

In fact, just earlier that same year, Sans had done something very odd. He had taken it upon himself to secretly teach me magic. It had been a boring day and I had carelessly tried to jump across a gorge in Hotland to get to the other side when I had tripped on a pipe and nearly fell into the Core.

Suddenly I was pulled up and back and put down on the ground. I looked up and saw Sans standing above me with a smile on his face but I could see that he had had a scare all the same, seeing me fall in. 

“better be more careful out here kid, ‘s a long way down”

That was the first time I had ever seen Sans use magical psychokinesis and I was amazed. No other monster I had met had any abilities like that. I asked him how he could do it and he said simply, “long story”.

I said something along the lines of, “Wow, I wish I could do that.”

Sans looked at me with an interesting expression and asked something strange. “Do you really mean that?” 

I looked at him and said, “Yeah I do…” Then I brightened. “Do you think you could teach me that?”

Sans looked like an idea had suddenly struck him and he embraced the idea almost immediately, saying that he probably could, which was a definite yes in disguise I could tell.

Other the next several months, I had been training fighting skills with Undyne, shooting skills with my gun and even magic with Sans. 

Now, I can’t say exactly how Sans taught me magic, because he made it VERY clear to me that what I was about to learn was extremely confidential and secret information and that if I told anyone that I was even learning magic, much less the kind of magic I was learning and how, the results would be disastrous. Not “Could”. “Would”. As in “Guaranteed Disaster if someone finds out”. 

As time moved along, I began to grow accustomed to this schedule. Train with Undyne, shoot my gun, learn under Sans, be with my family…

6 months of this went by without any significant change until the day that I had cruely woken up happy. I wish with all my heart that I would have woken up ready. Sometimes…

Sometimes I wish I never woke up at all…

I was just walking into the lab when I saw the young lizard-monster assistant, who by now I had gotten to know much better as Alphys. She was watching the security cameras throughout the Underground and had the screen focused on one camera in particular. She was hyperventilating.

“Alphys? What is it?”

She gasped and spun around when she heard my voice. I didn’t blame her. I was there much earlier than I was wont. She pointed to the screen and shakily said, “Another human just left the r-ruins…”

“What?” I ran over to the screen. 

I looked at the screen and looked at the camera that Alphys had been staring at. There stood slouched up a bipedal figure that had just stepped out of the ruins. It was standing very still and seemed to be carrying something in its hand. I couldn’t tell what it was, the picture was so blurry.

Alphys ran off. “I-I have to tell Gaster!” I watched her run and just stared the silent still figure that stood ankle deep in the snow. Something seemed very unnerving by how it acted. It wasn’t shivering in the cold. It wasn’t walking around checking its surroundings. It just…stood there. And breathed. After some time, I could see its shoulders rise and fall slowly as it breathed: very fast and deep as if it were some creature that had just gotten lungs and was greedily gulping in air that it literally could not get enough of. Like it was always out of breath.

I heard footprints behind me and saw Alphys running back with Gaster at her heels. He ran up to the screen and stared at the screen as if the whole world was ending on it. His expression filled me with dread and even Alphys seemed surprised by his reaction. 

“I-Is it dangerous?” she asked.

Gaster didn’t answer. His shoulders just drooped and he was silent for a long while.

He then sighed and motioned to Alphys. “Please bring Sans here,” he murmered.

Alphys sent a text on her phone to Sans. She must have said something that grabbed his attention instantly because, in the blink of an eye, Sans appeared suddenly next to Gaster looking at the screen. He stared at the screen and looked at Gaster and nodded. I saw a look of resignation in his eyes.

Gaster lowered his head and was about to say something when the “child” on the screen suddenly threw its hands in the air and sprinted off-camera. I was glad we couldn’t hear any noises that the creature was making.

I asked worriedly, “What are they doing?”

Gaster and Sans looked back at me and Alphys with stricken looks on their faces. My question went unanswered and Gaster muttered, “I must speak to them-“

Sans interrupted him with fervor. 

“No. I’ll do it. I can-“

“Sans!” Gaster gave him a warning look. Sans fell silent, worry etched across his face.

Alphys spoke up. “D-do they….have LV?”

Gaster looked at her and said simply, “Yes…”

Alphys gasped. “Then th-that means…“

Sans finished her thought. “-that human has killed several monsters.”

My heart leaped in my throat and my stomach twisted. “Wh-what?”

Gaster looked at me and spoke to Sans. “Talk to him Sans. If I do not retur-“

“It’ll be ok.” Sans said this as if he felt the exact opposite were true. 

Gaster looked at me and motioned me to lend him my ear. I leaned in and he leaned close and whispered something that still, to this day, reverberates in my mind. 

"Remember, Child. Mercy triumphs over Judgement."

I walked away with a confused look on my face.

Gaster held up a hand and said. “Sans...tell your brother…I love you both.”

He was gone in an instant.

Sans’ head lowered and he said nothing. I could almost hear a sniffle coming from him, like he was…crying.

“S-sans?” 

Sans looked up and for the first time ever, I saw Sans’ smile disappear. He looked stricken. He spoke back to Alphys. His voice was so quiet.

“Please keep watching the screens…lemme know if…something bad happens.”

“O-Ok.”

“Ray, come with me.”

I looked at Alphys. She motioned for me to follow him and worryingly watched the screens, flipping through the channels…

Sans led me through the lab and led me to a podium with a kind of brace laid upon it. Sans picked it up. 

“Ray, what do you know about soul power? And what makes up a soul?”

I looked at him in apprehension and stuttered.

“Um-human souls are stronger than monster souls and can persist outside of death indefinitely unlike monsters’ souls, which disappear immediately except for Boss Monsters, whose can persist in the physical world for a few moments?” 

‘What does this have to do with-?’

Sans interrupted my thought. 

“And what about magic? Can humans use magic?”

“N-no, not unless a monster teaches it to them…”

Sans looked at me and said, “Actually that is incorrect.”

I was shocked and confused. “Wh-what?? But humans-“

“Humans are mainly physical matter with very little magic about them while monsters are mostly magic? yeah, that’s true. But have you forgotten that humans still have some magical capabilities?”

“Well no, but no human ever uses it.”

Sans looked at me looking for my answer. “Unless-?”

‘There’s an unless?’

“Unless…their soul was to be…strengthened?”

“Not strengthened. Revived.”

‘Oh right.’ I remembered now. Sans had told me that during our training. 

Apparently, something had happened in ancient history, before the Barrier even existed, that had made humans’ souls “fall into slumber” or something like that so that humans could not tap into their magical capabilities without some type of external stimulus. 

“What does that have to do with this?”

“Before I answer that, hold out your arm.”

I reluctantly held out my arm as Sans clipped the brace onto my left arm.

“In answer to your question, I’m just reminding you that you have powers that most humans don’t have. But you also need to know that every human has the potential to gain abilities that they would now call ‘magical’, ‘supernatural’ or even ‘miraculous’.”

“Ok…?”

“And you’ve lived with Monsters for most of your life, so your soul has been awake for quite some time, absorbing strength and reawakening over the years. So you should be able to activate this…”

“Activate what?”

Sans patted my arm. “This.”  
“Now, Ray, do you know what the Seven Traits are?”

I did. The Seven Traits: The known Seven major characteristics that a human soul could inherit. 

“Yeah. Kindness, Patience, Integrity, Perseverance, Justice, Courage and Determination.”

“And do you know what yours is?”

I thought for a moment. I had learned it somehow a few years ago.

“…um…Integrity I think.”

Sans nodded. “That’s right. Now, I want you to do something, Ray.”

I listened.

“I want you to call on your soul’s strength and activate the brace.”

“But what is this brace anyway?”

“It’s designed to act as a mobile focuser; a way to focus your soul’s trait into a tangible form.”

I looked at my arm and was about to ask how I was supposed to call up my soul’s power, when we heard Alphys scream upstairs. Sans grabbed me close and with a flash, next thing I knew, we were standing behind Alphys. She was calling for Sans. 

Sans ran up to the screens and he went still. I looked at the screen. 

It was somewhere in Snowdin. Just on the Western edge of Snowdin Town. The human was there, walking towards the town with a mechanical motion. 

What drew everyone’s attention was the pillar of dust that was just collapsing behind it. I had seen the face of he who had been that Pillar just before it sunk into an unrecognizable pile of grey.

Gaster.

The human child had murdered Gaster.  
Sans fell to his knees in silence and began to sob.


	12. But Nobody Came

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Nightmare continues...

‘Is this the end?’

I sat on a stone ledge as I watched the Capital evacuate and the Royal Guard ran through the streets; some aiding in the evacuation, some heading west to support their comrades. I saw fear in those streets as I had never seen before. Monster children were crying, mothers clutching onto them (those that could anyway) worried that they would soon be the Human’s next victims, the fathers walked behind, looking over their shoulders making sure their families were safe. 

It was two hours since Gaster had been killed. 

Alphys had gotten in touch with Undyne.

Sans had disappeared. 

I had run off to alert the Royal Guard to the creature’s presence. 

After rousing the guard and running up into the castle, my family had already gotten word of what happened and I was greeted with Torigal holding me close. She had been so scared…

After some tears were shed and the family had made plans on how to hide everyone in some of the smaller hidden tunnels outside the Capital, me and Asriel had said that we would help with the evacuation. As it turns out there wasn’t much that we could help with except to be there. The presence of the Prince among his people seemed to help calm the monsters a bit and Asriel would speak words of encouragement to any fearful ones.

I could see that they appreciated it but I knew my brother. He was scared just like all the others.

As the evacuation went on, I decided to call Alphys and see what was going on with the Invader.

I called her on Asriel’s cell phone. 

*Ring Ring*

…But nobody came…

I began to feel concerned. I gave the phone to Asriel and voiced my concern.

“Alphys isn’t answering her phone.”

“That’s not good,” Asriel said worriedly.

“Maybe I should go check on her.” I suggested.

Asriel seemed unsure. “Mom and Dad said that we have to stay in the Capital.”

I was determined though. “Asriel, something’s not right. We can’t just forget the monsters in Hotland.”

Asriel seemed unsure.

“I could use the Secret Tunnel. It would put me right under the lab, by the river.”

Asriel looked at me and said, “Okay, but you’re not going alone.”

\

The Tunnel was a small, seemingly pointless hole in the wall by one of the many elevators leading to the Capital. It fell down, down, down until it joined a small subterranean stream   
that made the last bit like a water slide until with a sudden SPLASH, it planted you in the River. Sometimes you could see the RiverMan/RiverWoman there in their boat, “tra-la-la-ing “to them self.

Me and Asriel climbed out of the River and ran up the stairway that led to the lab. We hurriedly ran into the lab and looked at the screen. The cameras were still focused on the creature. It was wandering through Hotland. That meant…

“We have to see more. Did Undyne ever face it??” I asked myself.

I tried to type a command into the keyboard but my fingers slid across the keys. I grunted in frustration.

“Damn thing is so dusty I can’t-“

‘Dusty??’

My hands froze.

Asriel, hearing what I said, turned at me and said, “Did you just say the keyboard’s…dusty?!”

I looked at my feet and realized I was standing in a pile of yellowish dust…

Alphys…My hands and legs were covered in her dust.

Asriel backed away in horror. 

The shock took a while to dissipate from me but when realization hit me, I screamed and leaped away from the pile, brushing off the dust maniacally. My stomach began to heave. I looked for a nearby trash can and leaned over it, expecting the worst.

The worst never came though. No vomit came out. Just sobs.

Asriel sat back and wrung his horns his hands muttering, “No, no, no, no…”

After some time, I straightened up and walked back to the keyboard and, steeling myself, blew off the dust from the keyboard. 

“Ray!” Asriel yelled in unbelief.

I looked back to him, letting him know that I hadn’t blown off Alphys happily. 

“I’m sorry, Asriel…But…we need to see what happened…”

I scrolled through the recordings of the cameras. The Human’s rampage unfolded in front of us. 

Snowdrake, Ice Cap and the Dogs fell in Snowdin Forest. 

Snowdin Town was emptied. 

With horror, I saw that Papyrus was standing at the end of Snowdin, bravely blocking the killer from getting to Waterfall. He seemed to be pleading for the creature to end its rampage and-

“No! NO!! Papyrus don’t be a fool!!”

He was reaching his arms out and sparing the Human!

Of course, the inevitable happened but me and Asriel still screamed in horror and rage as the evil creature cut through the young skeleton and walked past him as he dissipated into dust. 

I was shocked to hear Asriel shouting at the screen in fury.

“He spared you!! You evil creature, he was SPARING YOU!!”

In a rage, Asriel’s arms erupted in flame and he launched streams of fire towards the walls in his anger.

Stupefied, I watched Asriel change for a moment into something I had never seen in him before. His eyes went dark, his horns grew and sharpened and he had black scars running along his face. 

I called to him.

“Asriel! Asriel! Hey!!”

I grabbed him by his arm and, in his surprise, accidently caused his stream to shoot towards me.

The flames came in close. I could see his face change from unquenchable anger to worry in a second, seeing his fire shoot towards me. I reacted without thinking. I closed my eyes shut and I raised my left arm up to protect my face…

And the Fire never reached me.

Opening my eyes, I could see only a large circle of deep blue. 

Feeling the fire subside, I lowered my arm and looked with amazement at my arm. 

The Brace.

In my fear, I must’ve done or…felt something that had activated it. 

How amazing that the Integrity within me had culminated into a shield!

I was now carrying a glowing blue shield attached to my arm. 

Asriel stared at me in shock, both from him almost severely wounding me and from the unexpected appearance of my soul power.

“Ray…” He was saying. “Is that…from your soul??”

I nodded yes shakily.

Asriel’s eyes grew wide. “You…You know magic?!” He was in disbelief.

I sighed and realized I had some explaining to do.

\

“So Sans has been teaching you magic for half a year? And you never told me? Why?”

I looked up from where I was sitting. Asriel was sitting cross-legged across from me.

“I’m sorry bro…He told me that I should keep it secret.”

“Do you really think me meant keep it secret from me, too? Or from Mom and Dad and Torigal?”

I ran my hands through my hair.

“I’m not sure,” I said wearily.

Asriel looked at me in disbelief. He looked away and shook his head and sighed. 

I was about to tell him once again that I was sorry for keeping him in the dark when I saw the screen. It was still showing the Killer moving through underground. Undyne was fighting it.

She…was different. Her eyes glowed bright and her armor had changed.

“Asriel…the screen.”

Asriel looked behind me and saw what I was seeing. He stood up and walked to the screen. I did the same.

Undyne was…amazing. Her spears rained down upon the creature and surrounded it on all sides and she absorbed blow after blow that the creature gave out. 

I was amazed. Undyne was pulling tricks that I had never seen before and showing a kind of pattern that one couldn’t crack unless they had studied it beforehand which was impossible because the patterns and attacks Undyne used were completely new and original and I could see that she was improvising marvelously. Hope was kindled within me again.

But the Human. That Creature that made me ashamed to call myself human. It just dodged all the attacks with speed and precision that I had never seen in any opponent before. No matter Undyne’s tactic, the creature avoided all waves, some even unscathed. 

Eventually the inevitable happened. 

Undyne’s HP went to Zero.

She began to melt in front of us and she seemed to die with a large smile on her face…

Undyne…

The rage that Asriel had felt for Papyrus seemed to refuse to take hold of him. Instead he just stood in shock, all energy seemingly sucked out of him. 

We both lowered our heads to mourn the loss of Undyne in silence.

Suddenly Asriel gasped and said, “Ray! These are old recordings! Where is it now!?”

I gasped and scrambled to catch up to where it was now. We skipped ahead…

We saw Waterfall pass by.

Hotland.

The Core.

‘Wait…’

Asriel gasped.

It was crossing the wall…the wall that led to…New Home!

“It’s almost to where we live!”

Asriel stared at the screen and looked at me.

We ran out of the lab as fast as we could.

The elevator had been deactivated when we reached it. No doubt to try to delay the Killer. Me and Asriel, not wasting any time, ran through the eastern region of Hotland. 

We made good time, using steam vents to cross chasms, and conveyor belts to speed our progress. We didn’t see anyone on the road. We also didn’t see any bodies. The local monsters must’ve been evacuated on time.

The horror of the murders that we had just seen had just started to fade from our memories when we reached the entry to the Capital.

As we ran in to the Capital, I ran in, faster than Asriel, and tried to leap over a small flight of stairs leading into the road. 

As I did this, two things happened at once. 

First, I remember seeing the streets being more colorful and not as defined as it normally was.

Second, I heard Asriel shout. Something about that I should stop.

The moment I realized what happened, my legs went limp and I fell. Instead of landing on my feet, my legs collapsed under me and I fell face first into the colorful coating of the street.

I knew what I had just landed in. 

I didn’t dare to breath in.

But I also couldn’t dare to look around me.

Torn between these two evils, shortness of breath and Asriel calling my name sealed it for me. I sat up and brushed off my face before taking a deep breath.

I opened my eyes and instantly wished I had chosen to suffocate.

The entire road and the surrounding buildings were covered in dust. In in some places was a light coating; other places, there were still piles sitting there, some a few feet high still.

I felt my senses reel and I fell to my knees, disturbing some red dust where I sat. 

Looking behind me, I could see Asriel standing amid a field of the dust of his subjects and friends.

He looked at me with tears in his eyes and, stumbling, I made my way to him and we embraced, both sobbing uncontrollably.

\

More time passed and we realized we still had to get to New Home. 

Wearily, expecting the worst, me and Asriel walked up the lane to New Home, each of us on a knife-edge between despair and revenge.

I was contemplating whether I should go to my room and simply never come out…or whether I could burn the Killer alive in a fire until it too was nothing but dust in the wind.

We reached the entrance to our home and were greeted by a disheartening sight.

A pile of dust just in front of our home. But also, there was, for the first time, a different trail to follow: Blood. I recognized it was the creature’s blood. A liquid that proved it was no monster but was instead, a human, like me. However, I was not going to admit to myself that me and that Thing were the same species.

Walking up to the pile of dust I found a small note. My eyes blurred and my voice shook as I read it aloud.

“’sorry kid  
“’i held it off as long as i could  
“’you cant give up  
“stay determ------‘”

I held the paper to my face and wanted to scream my outrage to all of Creation. But my mouth wouldn’t open. My lungs wouldn’t let it out.

Asriel walked into New Home as I was holding the paper. He had been sniffling when he had walked in but I realized he was being strangely silent.

I walked reluctantly into our home.

Asriel was not in the living room. I wandered into the Hallway, thinking I would find him there when I heard an echo coming from downstairs.

I ran downstairs and was about to call for Asriel when I saw him standing still in the middle of the passageway. I stopped behind him.

In front of us was a massive pile of dust that took up nearly the entire hallway. Past that was another slightly small pile. And just past that was an even smaller pile, bunched against the wall like whatever monster it had been had died pushed up against the wall. Shreds of clothing were scattered around the place and I recognized that they all seemed of the same make…

Torigal’s purple dress. The dress we had last seen her in.

Above the smallest pile of ashes and above our heads floated a small white upside-down heart. A monster’s soul. The soul of a boss monster. It was cracked, revealing that Torigal’s death…had not been long ago…and it was not fast.

Asriel reached up to the soul but just as he did, the soul began to fade.

I couldn’t speak as I watched Asriel scream and jump, trying to grab his sister’s soul.

“No!! No! Torigal!!! Torigal! Don’t leave!!”

The soul vanished, leaving us there alone.

Asriel screamed and covered his face and fell back against the wall wailing.

The dam broke for me as well and I fell onto the cold stone in despair.

As we cried, we heard another sound. One that still haunts me to this day.

It shouldn’t be labeled “laughter” because no sane person ever made that noise, least of all a joyful one.

But it was definitely a sound of pleasure. Pleasure in our pain. Pleasure in our torment.

The Laughter stills haunts my dreams and, although it never stays for long, never ceases to make me question whether life is nothing but a cruel joke…


	13. Judgement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Asriel face off against the Murderer.

My entire body shook with rage as I looked down the Judgement Hall. There stood the first human I had seen in years, aside from myself. Questions and Accusations ran through my mind as I watched my fellow creature approach us. So, this was humanity…A race of unfeeling murderers who’s only source of worth seemed to be in ruining others’ peace and happiness. I fingered the sword strapped to my side. I had never used it on others except in duels with Undyne. I gripped the handle of my pistol. I had never shot it at anything other than jars and plates. Now it looked like all that was about to change. All the years of playful jousting and marksman competitions would have to be used to kill.

I looked at my brother. He was filled with just as much rage as me. His body shook with anger and sorrow, his white fur along his neck raised in fury. His horns had been sharpened. He held bright globes of fire in his hands. He was also levitating. I hadn’t seen Asriel like this before. But then again, we had never experienced death of our loved ones. We had never seen our royal parents hold each other in sorrow and fear and disappear into dust along with everyone else we loved. Asriel, the former Prince, now turned King of Monsters looked at me, smiled and said two words I will never forget. 

“For Life.”

I looked up at him, summoned my shield and unholstered my sidearm. I cocked the slide, loading it and solemnly nodded.  
The Killer was approaching. Blood and Dust trailed behind it as it shambled towards us, breathing raggedly. The beauty of the Judgement Hall was dimmed by the presence of the Evil Thing. As I prepared myself, I looked at my brother and answered, 

“For Life….” 

\

The killer finally walked into our presence. It was breathing heavily, arms dangling at its sides motionless; one of its hands gripped a large knife. It looked up at us and I was amazed to see the face of the Enemy. A little girl. It looked at me and Asriel with an almost indescribable mixed expression of frustration and hate. 

I thought for a moment whether it was right to kill this being. But the memories of the underground filled with dust ran through my mind and I knew what I had to do.

Acting fast, I aimed my pistol at the creature and fired off two shots.

Amazingly, the creature ran behind a pillar and stayed there. Did it know what a gun was, maybe? Probably.

I kept the gun sighted on the pillar until I saw its face lean out of cover. On its face was plastered a hideous grin and I could see the creature was mocking me.

Enraged, I fired more rounds at the creature but it always seemed to know exactly when to duck back into the cover of the pillars.

This process of Hide and Seek went on until I had only three rounds left in my gun.

Losing patience, Asriel summoned a massive star and threw it, shimmering, at the pillar, destroying it.

Out of the rubble of the pillar came to creature, screaming at the top of its lungs. 

Holstering my gun, I pulled out my sword and prepared for the attack. 

Asriel also summoned two flat bladed swords. I would’ve noticed the sudden use of new abilities in Asriel and would’ve asked about them as well if we hadn’t been so occupied.

The creature attacked me first, bringing the knife down fast. I blocked it with my shield and swung with my blade, seeking to slash the creature against its chest. 

Somehow, it seemed like it knew I would do this and it jumped back from me after its initial charge failed and turned its attention to Asriel. 

It leaped up with speed and strength I had never seen before and swung its blade with demoniac fury at him.

Asriel, however could block these attacks brilliantly with his two blades and, using a blast of magic coming up from underneath the creature, he successfully forced it back away from him.

As the creature was pushed some distance away from us, me and Asriel both saw our chance and I pulled out my pistol again, firing off a shot at the creature.

I missed.

However, as I was aiming my pistol, Asriel had already summoned a type of cannon and fired a hailstorm of lasers at the creature. 

It bobbed and weaved desperately trying to avoid the lasers until it got hit.

Me and Asriel grinned and were cheered to see that we could, in fact, injure the creature.

The creature however was able to get up quickly and ran at us with an annoyed expression on its face. 

I suddenly had an idea of something to try. Using my magic, I threw my sword at the creature and sent it flying towards the killer’s chest.

As the sword sailed nearer to its target, Asriel called out and I could see that the killer was going to try grabbing the sword as it sailed towards it. 

Thinking quickly, I caused the sword to spin in the air, making it not only harder for the murderer to catch it, but also to make the stroke more likely to kill the thing.

The killer instead ran towards us and ducked under my sword, rushing us. 

Without my sword in hand, I tried to summon back my sword but the creature was on me before I could grab it. I fended it off with my shield as best I could but could feel that the creature would gain the upper hand if help didn’t come to me soon.

Luckily, I wasn’t alone.

The creature was yanked away from me by a massive skull-like object. It was sucking the creature in, away from me. Asriel, floating above it, strained to drag the creature into the skull-like structure. 

Something about the skull seemed to fill the creature with dread and it tried desperately to pull away from the skull with a look of horror and fear and, for the first time, it spoke.

The hideous death mask that had been on the creature’s face seemed to disappear and in its stead, was the face of a little girl about to die. She was crying and screamed, “Noo! Please don’t!!”

Hearing the voice come out of the creature, my determination to kill it wavered.

Asriel, on the other hand, did not waver. He looked at the crying thing under him and said in a deep voice that shook the entire Hall, “You dirty sister killer…”

Suddenly the memory of Torigal’s soul disappearing came into my mind and I remembered why we were here. I pulled out my pistol and fired my penultimate shot right at the little murderer.

I hit it.

I saw the impact ripple through the body of the creature and it looked towards me. The little girl was gone, replaced by the death mask, except now, blood dripped from its mouth.

It looked at me with hatred in its eyes and spoke, the girl’s voice replaced by a snarling, “Young fool…I am eternal! You cannot kill me!”

My body trembled at the voice and something stirred in me that was a mix of primal fear and disgust that filled me not with fear of the creature but a stronger desire to kill it. 

Asriel felt it too apparently because, as the creature was looking at me, my brother descended and charged the creature with his blades drawn. The creature was barely able to parry the rage of attacks, but, as fast as Asriel could, he couldn’t seem to get past the killer’s defense. 

I stood there, unable to help him and I watched how Asriel pulled off move after move that I knew that I had never seen before. He was improvising and the creature blocked off his new unique attacks with ease. 

No matter what we did, it always seemed one step ahead of us, blocking off our moves, sneaking past us, dodging our attacks. Like it was a master at combat or…like it had seen it all before.

The creature’s fight with Undyne ran through my mind. 

‘Seen it all before…’

Suddenly I realized the horrible truth. Of course! How had we been so blind? The creature was avoiding our attacks because we had used them in it before! It…. had the ability to reset time and come back to a set period even after death. 

Determination. Gaster had told me something about it.

The creature was beating Asriel now. It had landed a hit on him and he flinched, giving it a chance to knock him over. 

Everything slowed down.

The creature was on top of him, bringing its knife up for the kill.

Its head was exposed. I had one shot left. I could end this with one shot to the creature’s head. But…I had done that before, hadn’t I? I must have. Since my first response in this fight had been to shoot at the killer, I had probably succeeded in killing it this way, maybe several times. But it had just returned, though. What was the point of killing a psychopathic killer if it would just come back?

Suddenly, I realized what had to happen.

I sprinted up to the creature and tackled it, pushing it off my brother. He lay there, panting, wounded. But the creature was ready for this, too and it simply grabbed me by the neck and forced me down, bringing its knife down on me. No matter. This was according to plan. 

The creature hadn’t counted on me doing this.

I squeezed my finger and the last shot echoed out and the bullet ripped through the creature’s abdomen, releasing noxious fumes as bits of meat and blood and other matter shot out the back of the creature. 

It screamed in pain and doubled over. I took my opportunity. 

I rolled over and grabbed the creature by its hair and dragged it screaming to a pillar.

I threw it against the floor and stood on its back, pinning it to the ground.

I summoned my sword and held the Brace/Focuser against the sword, infusing the blade with my soul’s power. Then raising my sword, I filled it with KR, Karmatic Retribution; the power to turn the sins of your enemy into your weapon, poisoning their soul, but never killing them. And by God, I would make this creature suffer.

Grabbing the creature by the neck I threw them against the pillar and brought my sword bearing down on them with all my strength. I felt the sword rip and tear through muscle and bone until it hit stone on the other end. 

The creature screamed; it was the little girl again. She was back. 

I ignored her screams as I summoned my magic and using as much as I could, I forced the sword even deeper, pushing it through the pillar, anchoring it in the rock.

Then, using my magic and my strength, I bent the blade to the side until the sword shattered, leaving me with little more than a shard at the end of the sword’s hilt. 

Using magic, I bent the blade until the shattered end came back down towards the now impaled killer, making it impossible for the creature to free itself. 

I saw that the KR had left the little bit of blade that remained on the hilt. However, the blade that was now imprisoning the Murderer glowed with KR, keeping the killer’s HP at 1, never allowing it to heal.

I left the prisoner and, picking up what was left of my sword, I walked over to Asriel, who was still lying on the ground. I realized that I had forgotten he was wounded and I checked him. His HP was still at a considerably decent level. I picked him up and I heard him whisper in my ear.

“R-ray…what do we do now?”

I looked at him and wasn’t sure what to tell him until suddenly, we heard a noise behind us.

Looking behind us, I saw that a portal had opened in the Hall. It had just appeared. 

Looking at Asriel, I said, “Looks like…we just go in there.”

He looked at the portal and nodded, indicating there wasn’t anything else that we could do.

I led Asriel into the Portal and he made his way through.

Before going in, I heard the creature shriek at me again.

Looking back, I saw it still impaled on the pillar with its head craned towards me. 

“You think this is over!? This will never be over! No matter where you run, we will find you! You will NEVER BE FREE FROM US!!” 

I ran into the portal with the creature’s screams ringing in my head.

\

I shouldn’t have run into the portal. 

The moment I had stepped through the hole in time and space, I had a sensation of falling. I thought at first, ‘Wow, this must be what going through a portal feels like! Amazing.’

But I suddenly realized I was actually falling. I think the portal opened right out of the side of Mt. Ebbot...

I remember seeing trees coming up under me and realizing my mistake before I hit the ground in some kind of campsite and my leg breaking on impact…

The rest, as they say, is history.


	14. A Time To Heal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Asriel begin the process of healing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Now that we're done with all the hellish flashback stuff, how about some stuff to make you feel happy again?   
> We got some jokes, some cute moments, some Mettaton for you Mettaton fans, and we're moving this plot train right along!  
> (this chapter's loooong lol)

Everyone was silent at the table. All except Asriel. He held his head in his hands and sobbed and Ray cried silently, large tears falling down his cheek. 

His story told in full, Ray was silent, not wanting to talk anymore. He didn’t want to be at that table. He didn’t want to have to explain himself anymore. But he didn’t want to be alone. Regardless of who these people were to him in another life, they had greeted him with nothing but questions and suspicion. He wasn’t home. Home was gone. These people weren’t really his-.

Suddenly a massive embrace silenced his misgivings. Toriel. Of course. He looked up to see her arms wrapped around him and, to his surprise and happiness, saw that Asgore was holding Asriel. 

Next, Ray felt a small arm around his torso. He looked over his shoulder to see Frisk standing there, tears in her eyes. Her other arm was wrapped around Asriel.  
Ray stiffened only for a moment. Looking around, however, seeing everyone around, Ray felt something he hadn’t felt in what seemed like eternity although it was maybe only a week. 

He felt hope in him again. He closed his eyes and gave himself to the warm love of his loved ones.

Maybe…

Maybe things could go back to the way things were after all…

\

The next day, Ray was awoken by a familiar smell wafting into his nose. He thought at first it was his fuzzy bro, but with another more purposeful sniff, he recognized the smell of Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie.

He gasped and sat up quickly, squinting from the light that was streaming in from the room’s window. Had they left it open last night?

He felt around for his brother only to find more bed and no Asriel.

Forcing his drowsy eyes open, Ray saw a hilarious sight.

On the end of the bed, the green-plaid quilt that had been Asriel’s cover had fallen off the bed sometime in the night, taking Asriel with it, it seemed like. Ray saw just Asriel’s feet propped up over the edge of the bed and, looking over, saw Asriel asleep in a most uncomfortable looking position with his head, arms and upper torso on the floor and his lower torso and legs held up by the bed. His face was buried in a pile of pillows that had fallen off the bed, too. 

Ray snickered to himself and, after debating with himself whether he should or not, pushed Asriel’s feet off the bed, waking up the Boss Monster.

Asriel woke up with a snort and raised his head wearily and looked at Ray and said, “This had better be good.”

Ray grinned and said, “Well, first off, your sleeping arrangement is a little different from what Toriel came up with,” Asriel realized he was on the floor and sighed resignedly. Wasn’t the first time this had happened. 

“Also,” Ray continued. “smell that?” He took a deep draught of air along with the now slightly curious Asriel.

Asriel suddenly sat up quickly and, looking at Ray, he asked conspiratorially, “Is that…?”

Ray smiled and nodded.

Then, to Ray’s annoyance, Asriel said, “First Slice!” before he even finished nodding. When their mother had baked a pie, the two would always say “First Slice” with the rule that whoever said it first would get the slice. Ray was annoyed that he had played it fair and hadn’t said it as soon as he woke up Asriel. 

Asriel walked out of the room and made a B-line for the kitchen. Ray followed close behind him. 

Sure enough, Toriel was in the dining room, reading a book with her glasses and everything. She looked up to see the two boys walking into the living room and she smiled. She knew they must have smelled the pie. 

“Good morning boys. The pie isn’t quite ready yet.”

“We know,” Asriel said, “just…couldn’t go back to sleep.” Here he gave Ray a sideward glance and Ray just innocently shrugged.

\

Later that day, the Dreemurr Residence was filled with guests. Sans, Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys all were there, along with a new friend. 

Mettaton was a being completely foreign to Ray and Asriel. He had never been built in their timeline.

Mettaton originally was going to attend a Summer Kick-Off Party but, when he heard that the Prince of Monsterkind had returned and he had a human brother with him, he simply could not resist the opportunity to witness such a “perfect opportunity to introduce the two to the new world”.

Now, it should be known that Mettaton arriving to the Home was pre-notified and it had been decided in the group that the robotic celebrity not learn of Ray’s magical capabilities.   
The knowledge also of Ray and Asriel coming from another dimension, especially one where monsterkind had been largely destroyed, was also deemed to be confidential and would stay within the 9 individuals who had been at the Ebbot Trip. 

Mettaton arrived after the other guests had already settled down and gotten social at the house. Probably to be “fashionably just slightly more recent than others”. 

He walked into the front door with a vocal “Salutations, my Beauties and Gentlebeauties! The Glamour!” Here, Mettaton posed dramatically. “~Has arrived~!”

Ray’s eyebrows shot heavenward as he felt the forewarnings of Mettaton’s dramatic entrances was actually pretty spot on, maybe even understated.

The star greeted all the guests with practiced pomp and style and eventually made his way to where Ray and Asriel stood at the far end of the living room, dreading their introductions.

Mettaton seemed to finally notice them and he gave a dramatic gasp and exclaimed, “OHHH MYY! Asriel Dreemurr and Ray the Human in the flesh! Oh, you two are the absolute rage! The entire city is absolutely BUZZING with news of your arrival! And, I MUST sayyy...” Here he glanced the two over, “you two are quite the handsome devils, if I may be so bold in saying.” Mettaton ended this is a playful wink.

Asriel looked past Mettaton at Frisk as a silent plea for help. Frisk just rolled her eyes and smiled, motioning that he was just fine.

Asriel looked back at the Robot and cleared his throat. “Thank you…very much, Mettaton.” He said only slightly nervous. 

Mettaton seemed entertained by the Prince’s apparent humility. “Oh your Highness, you are MUCH too modest for someone as high in the world as yourself! Simply amazing!” 

Here, Mettaton’s interior phone rang and he excused himself, “Oh I am sorry, Darlings, I simply MUST take this. I will return, don’t worry! Toodles!” He walked away pressing a button on the side of his neck. “~You’ve reached Mettaton~…Blooky! Sweetie! How ARE you?”

Asriel and Ray looked at each other. Ray let out a deep breath and said, “Well…that was interesting…”

\

Later on, as the gathering went on, Ray had retreated into his room where he had a computer opened up. He had been exploring the Internet, learning as much as he could about the new world he had found himself in. He was just about to get off when he heard a knock on the door. 

“Oh, come in.” He said.

The door opened to reveal Sans standing in the door with a lazy smile on his face.

“heya kid. watcha doin’ all cooped up in here? Mettaton’s wondering where you ran off to”

“Ohh…um just…cruising the internet, I guess…”

Sans seemed to accept this.

“heya, wanna play this cool game?”

“Uh, sure yeah. What is it?”

Sans walked over and typed something into the cursor search and brought Ray to the start menu of a game. It showed a red and blue human standing on a grassy landscape with green pipes and turtles walking around. Some catchy music was playing in the background.

“Oh hey, I think I’ve seen this!”

Sans chuckled and walked off. “have fun”

Ray began moving the character around, exploring the level. 

He had only taken a few steps until the ground suddenly fell out from under the character, bringing up a ‘GAME OVER’ screen. 

Ray was surprised by the sudden happening and sat there at the computer, hardly processing what just happened. Eventually he just shrugged and restarted the game, watching the part of the floor that had fallen down. 

Moving fast, he made his avatar jump over the piece of floor that fell…only to land on a piece of floor that had spikes hidden that sprang up when he hit the ground, earning him another ‘GAME OVER’.

Ray pursed his lips. He would probably be here for a while.

\

The rest of the group sat down in the living room. There was a reason behind this meeting other than just introducing Ray and Asriel to Mettaton. 

While the City by Ebbot and many other cities and states and even whole countries had come to accept the monsters openly and welcomed them with open arms, there were still many people that didn’t get along well with monsters. There were anti-monster people both in and out of the country.

The topic of the day was the home front: the humans in the Nation that didn’t get along with monsters. 

Mettaton started the conversation with a statement. 

“Dearies, I am not lying when I say it is simply DREADFUL some of the things that those humans are calling us. Why, just the other day, at a concert of mine, a human was walking around the lobby, HARRASSING concert goers heading into the arena, both monsters and humans. He was loud, crude and threatening and Security had such the nightmare escorting him out. Rumor had it that he was threatening that a CURSE would befall any human who supported monsters! A CURSE!”

The group groaned, some in annoyance, others in disappointment. 

Frisk grumbled, “Why don’t they trust you guys yet? We literally haven’t done anything wrong since we came up here!”

Undyne agreed with Frisk. “Yeah! We’ve been nice! We don’t fight them! We try to do what’s RIGHT, and these humans STILL don’t trust us?! It’s been 4 years!”

Asgore shook his head thoughtfully. “It seems the wounds go much deeper. It may take 400 years to fully heal all the damage that has been done…”

Toriel spoke up, “Asgore, you and I and most of the monsters in this room can, perhaps, afford to wait for that long, but the humans cannot. Frisk will not be with us that long and besides, even if simply waiting could, possibly, heal old wounds, new wounds can come up in a hundredth of that time if we are not cautious. Some of these humans are dangerous and are calling for outright war!”

“But, mom,” Frisk spoke up. “those humans aren’t the ones in our country. They’re on the other side of the planet, oceans away. Shouldn’t-shouldn’t we focus on the people in our country first before worrying about those other ones?”

“My child-“ Toriel began, but at the moment a yell from Ray and Asriel’s room interrupted them. 

“UGH! NO! C’MON!!” 

“Ray?” Asriel (who, it had been decided, should be present for the meeting too, being the heir to the Monster Throne) wondered as he worriedly looked at their room. 

Sans defused the worry in the atmosphere. 

“it’s ok. he’s just playing a game i introduced him to”

“W-which one, Sans-s?” Alphys asked.

Sans told them and half the group (Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus and Frisk) groaned. They had all tried that game before and knew all too well the rage the game induced.

“S-sans, that game’s i-impossible..”

Sans shrugged and said, “not impossible, but dang near close to it” He winked.

\

Ray ran his hands on his face and groaned angrily. He had only gotten past the first level and he was rapidly losing patience with this unfair game…

\

Meanwhile, the conversation continued in the Living Room.

“Frisk is right, though, Darlings,” Mettaton spoke, “it looks like the most imminent threat is the one that can show up at our front doors. Now, what do we know about the humans that don’t trust us?”

Alphys spoke up. “W-well, as far as we can tell, uh-uh we think it has a lot to do with what part of the country th-they live in and how they l-live. L-like most big cities are happy enough with monsters b-but um, a lot of the smaller towns and in the c-country has a lot of naysayers.”

The group sat in quiet thought.

“We th-think also, that maybe some of the religions that the humans here believe in might be affecting their decisions. Some of their traditional ways of thinking seem an-anti-monster related.”

Undyne scoffed. “Why do humans have to do that? Why do they have to do what old books and dead people tell them to do? Why can’t they just think for themselves and choose their own paths?”

For the first time, Sans spoke up.

“cause that’s really hard for humans to do”

All eyes looked at Sans. 

“I’ve noticed that a lot of humans say that they’re free-thinkers and that they decide what to do for themselves but they really don’t see how so much of what they do is based off of what other people say and things that other people have done. where i work, what people watch is not usually what they LIKE. they watch what is RECOMMENDED. videos that are popular and millions, sometimes billions, of people watch it because it’s what everyone else is watching and talking about. i see very few humans doing things that truly are original and sometimes to keep myself relevant on there, a lot of things that i do are things that people want me to do, not something that I had originally come up with.  
so much of what humans do is based off of how many people agree with them that even if they don’t follow the main religions where they live, they tend to create new ones, even if they’re parodies and they follow these “joke religions” almost more religiously than those that actually preach the “main religions. there’s at least one good example of that. somethin’ about a gorilla in a zoo…”

The group sat in silence pondering this. 

The silence was interrupted by a bang and another, “OH YOU’RE KIDDING ME!! I JUMPED THAT!”

Snickers ran through the group as Ray’s outbursts relaxed the atmosphere.

\

Ray tugged on his hair in frustration. This game was driving him crazy! He couldn’t take much more of this…! 

He restarted one more time…

\

Papyrus stood up and began to speak. 

“WELL, I BELIEVE WHAT WE MUST DO IS CLEAR NOW!”

“oh yeah? and what’s that bro?” said Sans, as he was doing something with his phone.

“WE MUST TEACH THE HUMANS THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS! THESE HUMANS YOU SPEAK OF ARE NOT EVIL, SANS! THEY ARE SIMPLY MISGUIDED! LOST SOULS THAT REQUIRE THE GUIDING HAND OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND HIS FRIENDS, THE MAGNIFICENT 9!”

Sans facepalmed. Ever since Ray and Asriel had arrived, Papyrus had been calling the new group the Magnificent 9.

Asgore chuckled and stated, “Well, Papyrus, perhaps you are not far from the Truth.”

Papyrus cackled and sat down, pleased with himself, even if he wasn’t quite sure what he was proud of, aside from his general greatness.

Asgore stood up and continued, “You are right Papyrus in saying that these humans that are against us are not necessarily evil. They are, in fact, lost. Misguided. Maybe all we need to do is to better understand the humans, learn what it is that they believe in that causes them to go against us.”

Asriel suddenly spoke up. “You’re right, dad!” 

He stood up and said, “The humans aren’t all evil! I think what happened is that what they believe is a mix of what they like to do and what actually might be true.”

Toriel spoke up at this. “There must be some truth in what they believe, else they would not cling so. I believe it is our duty to separate what is truth from what is tradition. To find what is how the world works instead of how some wish it would.”

Frisk was excited that her family was finally gearing up to do something about this but she was still worried. 

“But how are we going to do this?”

The group fell silent as they realized they hadn’t thought this far.

The clock in the dining room ticked-tocked and still no answer was found.

It was a while before any noise permeated the household, but when It came, It brought all out of their inner thoughts.

Several louds bangs crashed from Ray and Asriel’s room followed by a long drawn out expletive. And not just any swear word. It was the F-Bomb; the mother of Swearwords. It lasted a full four seconds long.

Toriel and Asgore heard that word uttered and gasped. They both got up and made their way to Ray’s location. 

They were followed by the rest of the group.

Asriel and Frisk were scared for Ray’s sake.

Mettaton was shocked but fascinated to see what happened next.

Sans was recording the whole thing on his phone with a big expectant grin.

Undyne knew from experience how Toriel and Asgore felt about swear words and could only imagine the world of hurt that was about to transpire Ray. 

“Oh-“

\

“-crap….”

Ray’s heart was pounding. Did he really say that!? With TORIEL and ASGORE in the next room?!

He couldn’t hear anything coming from the next room and he began to feel that he was in the clear when his door flew open and he shut his eyes instinctively.

‘imdeadimdeadimdeadimdeadimdeadimdead…!’

“Ray…”

“Oh God, I know that tone…’

“WHAT did you just say??”

Ray opened his eyes to see Toriel and Asgore in the room with angry and/or disappointed looks on their faces. He barely noticed the other monsters and Frisk outside the door, looking on nervously.

Ray gulped…

“Um…”

“No ‘ums’ young man! What did you just say?”

“Oh no, she’s off, ladies and gentlemen...’

“I…said…bad word.” Ray spoke nervously.

“I think you’ve been on that computer long enough, Ray.”

“Yyyyeahhhh…”

Ray shut off the device. 

He looked questioningly at the group awaiting his punishment.

Asgore motioned for Ray to step out into the hallway.

Ray took the Walk of Shame.

He walked out into the group and looked at the ground, embarrassed.

“Now, I think it would be fair to apologize to our guests for saying such things in their presence.”

‘okay, fair enough…’

“I’m sorry for…saying what I said and I hope you can forgive me.”

The group seemed on the edge of laughing, almost, but, seeing Asriel’s and Frisk’s motions to do so, the group accepted Ray’s apology.

Toriel spoke again, calmer now that Ray had apologized and matters had been fixed.

“Ray, from now on, you must watch what you say. It is not befitting for a member of the Royal Family to say such things, especially in such a way.”

A quiet fell over the group as Asgore spoke, supporting Toriel’s statement.

“Yes, she is right in this, Ray. A Dreemurr doesn’t say such things needlessly.”

Ray looked down embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Mom and Dad. I’ll be more careful from here on.”

Some gasps went up in the group.

Asriel and Frisk looked at each other joyfully,

Mettaton’s mouth hung agape and he was imagining the headlines already.

Sans nodded to himself and gave an approving smile. 

Papyrus let out a loud, “WOWIE! RAY IS A DREEMURR!?”

Suddenly Asgore, Toriel and Ray all realized what they had just said; that they had been acting like…like a family!

Asgore looked at Toriel and the two looked at Ray and the group.

Toriel composed herself but seemed to have a small smile in her face all the same. She looked to Ray and asked, “Well…would he like to be?”

Ray looked at the two Boss Monsters and tears welled up in his eyes as he ran to them saying, “Yes! Yes I do!” 

The three of them embraced as Ray cried tears of joy. He was Home! He knew it now.

He felt more arms around him and realized that Asriel and Frisk had joined the Group Hug too and he could hear the cheers of the monsters surrounding him, welcoming him…


	15. The Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Dreemurrs go to the Park where a battle of epic proportions takes place...a battle of water balloons. Frisk and Asriel have an awkward moment ( ;D ). But it's not all fun and games when Ray discovers something dark in that place...

It was a hot, humid day filled with birdsong and the chirping of cicadas in the trees. The sun shone down mercilessly, the only solace being found either in the shade of the trees or the air conditioned indoors. Monsters and Humans were outside, however, talking and playing in the Park. 

The Dreemurrs had decided to go to the park in the City as an idea for a fun time spent outside, and also as a way to help acclimate Ray and Asriel to life in a human and monster city on the Surface.

Ray was walking without his sword and his gun. It was deemed best that Ray avoid walking around with his sword if he could help it and apparently there was a law that humans were not allowed to carry handguns unless they were 21 years old or older and even then they had to take a class? Ray was surprised but he accepted this. At least he was allowed to keep his Focuser wrapped around his arm as 1) it was discreet and 2) it was mostly a defensive mechanism.

Frisk had called a lot of her friends from school, both humans and monsters and they and their families had all agreed to meet her and her family in the park. 

So, it was on this day that Asriel discovered water balloons. A human boy named Blaze from Frisk’s class had showed him how to fill balloons with water and said that Asriel would have the honor of instigating the water balloon fight. Unsure, Asriel looked around for a target, his little yellow hydro-grenade in his hands. Not knowing anyone else to throw it at, he searched out Ray and, sneaking up on him, threw the balloon at his brother, the balloon rupturing and splashing against Ray’s shoulder in a satisfiying ring.

Ray looked at his brother in surprise and, processing what had happened, he rushed to where Blaze stood, next to a bucket now full of water balloons. 

Ray grabbed a handful and grinned at Asriel. 

This was war.

\

Eventually all the children were pelting each other with colorful bags of water, most of them popping harmlessly on the grass, the others pelted on miniature warmongerers with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Asriel had a balloon in his hands, laughing with joy at the war he had started. He saw a girl run past him and, seeing what he thought was an easy target, threw the balloon at her. 

He just missed her head.

Noticing the balloon sail past her head, the girl looked over her shoulder and noticed the Prince. She shouted, “Hey! I found Asriel!”

Suddenly, five warriors rushed out of the trees, three monsters and two humans, each armed with many balloons. They made a rush to Asriel.

Asriel realized he was compromised and with a hurried, “Crap!” he ran for the trees behind him.

\

Frisk had not partaken much in the fight. She had thrown maybe two balloons and then she had a strange feeling…

She decided to retreat to the trees and watch the battle from an area of relative safety. She sat behind a log, watching as her new brothers fought alongside humans and monsters. 

She noticed that even though sides and alliances seemed to form, for the most part they were equal enough with only one group being of only one type and she knew that those four human boys were no monster haters…

She was just happy that humans and monsters were working together and not against each other.

Uh oh. Some commotion was coming her way. Not wanting to get sucked back into the fight, Frisk ducked behind the log, waiting for the group to pass her up.

\

Asriel had evaded his pursuers fairly expertly, only taking one balloon to the back. Seeing a large log on the forest floor in front of him, Asriel vaulted over it…And landed right on top of Frisk!?

\

Frisk gasped when she looked up and saw Asriel on top of her. She was surprised and pretty nervous for some reason. She tried to say, “Asriel what are you doing?” but, when she tried to speak, Asriel covered her mouth with his hand, pushed her into the ground and laid down on top of her, without any doubt on complete purpose.

Frisk’s eyes went wide and she was confused, kind of scared and…was she…excited? Excited and curious on what Asriel was trying to do to her??

Her mind began to wander into some embarrassing possibilities when she heard the pursuers.

“Asriellll where arrre youuu?”

“Come out, come out wherever you arrreee…”

She understood and her once rigid body relaxed. Of course. He was trying to hide, too. Of course he wasn’t gonna…He would never try to…

She was ashamed of herself and tried to get comfy where she was. Asriel was a bit taller than her and he was definitely very muscular…more than she had noticed beforehand….but, he was still somewhat light and his white fur helped cushion his embrace.

As the hunters left, looking for Asriel elsewhere, the Prince uncovered Frisk’s mouth.

“Sorry Frisk,” he whispered. “I just really didn’t want to play anymore. I didn’t even know you were here…”

“It’s ok,” she comforted. “I didn’t wanna fight either.”

The two looked at each other and smiled. They almost laughed aloud by how awkward (but funny) the current situation was until they heard another voice. 

“Hey, I think I heard whispers here!”

Asriel pushed himself back down onto Frisk and stayed silent. 

The two looked each other in the eyes and could tell that they would be here for a while…

\

Ray was a force to be reckoned with on the field of battle. He hid in trees, sneakily stole water balloons other kids would hoard, and he was deadly accurate with the water balloons. 

He was chasing one human boy through the trees, or rather, stalking. He was quietly following the trail left by the child, holding a water balloon, ready to throw when he found his target.

He saw that the trail led to yet another clearing and was ready to throw when he heard voices.

He heard the boy he was following along with another voice. An adult voice. Maybe human.

“Yeah, but what are you doing?” The boy was asking.

“Oh we’re just surveyors. Now, could you please move on? We’re trying to work.”

“Um…my uncle’s a surveyor and…he does not dress like you when he works. And what’s that thing that lady-“

“Ok hey, look. This is private business. Can you just turn around and go back?”

At this point, Ray snuck a look through a tangle of ivy that draped the tree he was hiding behind. He saw the boy he had been chasing was speaking to an adult human. The human was wearing dark clothing, regardless of the weather. He was smiling warmly at the boy but Ray saw as plain as day that smile was not genuine. It hid impatience, fear and hate. 

Behind him, another human, a woman, was standing by a bizarre structure, almost like a pillar, stuck in the ground. Ray hated how it looked. It was black and glistened sickeningly in the sun, like it refused to be affected by summer’s heat, preferring instead the dead dark of a cloudy, snowless winter day. Apparantly the two were doing something with the object when the boy had stumbled onto them. 

That boy was in serious danger, Ray just knew it. He could see the man slowly placing his hand at his side, reaching for some unseen weapon most likely.

Ray realized he had to do something, fast.

Not knowing what else to do, he ran into the clearing with his water balloon and threw it at the boy.

The attack surprised the three humans and the boy yelped with shock and looked behind him.

Ray was smiling the dumbest, biggest smile he could muster and laughing like he was a little kid, but on the inside, he was trembling, fearful of what this gambit would do.

‘Oh please, just run back with me. Don’t ask questions. Don’t try to keep us here. Get out. Just run.’

“Haha! I got you, finally! C’mon, the water balloon fight is almost done!”

The boy seemed unsure but he looked at the two adults. Thankfully, he seemed to decide that he didn’t want to be here anymore so he took Ray’s ambush as an out for him. He went back through the trees.

Ray guffawed dumbly, pretending to not notice the dark pillar and its two suspicious guardians. He secretly snuck a glance at the two. The man had relaxed and was turning away, satisfied that the intruder was being led away. The woman hung her head,

Ray and the boy ran through the woods with everything they had.

\

When Ray came back to the park, the water balloon fight had been over for a long time and some of the families had left. Ray and the boy were questioned, asked where they had gone. Ray explained that they had just gotten lost.

Looking at a park bench, Ray saw Asriel and Frisk sitting together, talking quietly but enthusiastically. Asriel was telling Frisk a story and she was giggling and was enjoying the silly story. Ray didn’t know what is was about; at that point, nothing seemed more irrelevant. He had too much on his mind.

That Pillar was an artifact of Evil. Ray just knew it. He could feel it in his Soul. Whatever those two strangers had been up to was not good…

His thoughts were interrupted by Asriel. 

“Ray, what’s wrong?”

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his brother, who had a concerned look on his face. Ray shook his head dismissively and said, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Asriel wasn’t sure whether or not Ray was telling the truth. He was about to tell Ray this, when the group heard a massive peal of thunder. 

Looking up, Ray saw the some massive dark clouds that had been forming where now at a massive breaking point and were heading from the Sea towards the City. A big storm was rolling in.

“Children!” Toriel’s voice rang out somewhere. “It’s time to go!”

The group made their way to their cars, eager to get to their respective homes before the storm hit.

As they made their way to the car, Ray saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked across the parking lot and saw three humans, all adult men, wearing the same dark clothing as the two strangers in the woods. They were making their way to where Ray guessed the Pillar to be. They had expressions on their face which were…nasty to say the least. Ray wondered if there was a reason for that. He also wondered why one of them was carrying a camera…

Four men…one woman…a camera…?

Ray suddenly remembered the look on the woman’s face. She was pale and drawn, as if she was awaiting some kind of trial. She was afraid. Afraid of the man. Afraid of the Pillar and now...she was probably afraid of the three other men that would eventually make it to the clearing, their faces grinning with...

Ray’s stomach heaved. He suddenly felt sick. He doubled over in the parking lot, groaning. He heard voices calling out, maybe his parents, maybe his siblings, he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that whatever was going on in the park was Evil. He just knew it. And it had to be stopped. It was more than just the most likely dirty filming that would take place. That Pillar would have a part to play and Ray knew that whatever it was, it could not happen!

He had to tell Sans.


	16. A Bad Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray gets some kind of attack that made him sick and tells Sans about the Dark Pillar and the Strangers there. Sans decides to do something about it. (Who's ready to watch Sans dish out some Retribution?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to play your favorite version of Megalovania when the time comes :D

Ray lay in his bed, feeling sick. His stomach was twisting and sweat dripped off his forehead. His family was worried that he had overheated himself in the sun or even somehow got a fever. He was given some tea to help soothe him. The tea actually did help him relax; his mind certainly cleared afterwards. 

It wasn’t illness that had stricken Ray. It was dread. Dread and a strong sense that he had to do something. He asked if he could talk to Sans. Frisk went to call him. She ended up being on the phone with Papyrus, who said, after shouting up to Sans that Ray the Human was ill and needed to speak to him, said that Sans was most likely asleep.

He wasn’t.

He was in Ray’s room, sitting next to him. He had teleported over as soon as he heard. Sans had a feeling that what Ray needed was important.

Ray wasn’t surprised to see Sans appear in his room. He just apologized for bothering him.

Sans shook his head dismissively saying, “ehh forgedaboutit. what’s buggin’ you, kid?”

“Sans…there’s something evil going on in the park…”

Ray told Sans what he saw in the park. He told him about the lying humans, the dark pillar, the other humans who clearly intended evil and-

“kid kid, relax, you’re working yourself up. It’s ok.”

Ray lay in bed shivering and said, “Sans…I’m worried what they’ll do…to her and to the City..”

Sans looked down and said nothing for a bit. Then he smiled and put a hand on Ray’s hot forehead. 

“don’t worry yourself kiddo, it’s not good for your Soul. I’m sure everything will work out just fine…”

The two suddenly heard Asgore and Frisk speaking in the hallway. Sans looked at Ray and winked, teleporting out of the home and vanishing.

A few seconds later, Asgore walked into the room, carrying in more tea and Frisk walked behind him.

“Ray,” she said, “sorry but Papyrus just told me that Sans is not available...”

Ray closed his eye and breathed in deeply, looking more relaxed. 

“It’s ok…Things’ll get better I’m sure.”

\

Back at the park, the storm was right on top of the City. The sun was obscured by the clouds as the bright sky was swallowed up by the dark clouds. The land was darkening all around and the wind swirled the trees as the empty park awaited the onslaught of rain. Thunder rumbled and cracked but no rain had fallen yet. It was deathly quiet and the park was empty.

Suddenly a wail rang out in the park. There was evil at the Pillar.

A small tent had been erected next the pillar and more men had come to the pillar. The clearing was being guarded by two men disguised as police officers. It was their job to keep away any random passersby. By the pillar, one man kneeled by the pillar, muttering something under his breath. Two men sat nearby whispering to one another, lewd smiles and snickers on their faces as they watched the cameraman set up his camera for the upcoming scene. 

Eventually, another man stepped out of the tent, in his hands he held a bloody scalpel and a small strip of flesh in his gloved fist. He carried it to the pillar, patiently awaited the man to finish his obeisance. 

After the man finished and made a strange sweeping motion with his hand, he stood up and acknowledged the bloodied surgeon. “You know…if she screams again, someone could discover us…”

The bloodied man impatiently brushed off the attempted intimidation and presented the leader with the piece of flesh, along with a small bottle of blood he had…harvested. “This is all you need, right?”

The leader took the two items without bothering to put on any gloves and said, “From you, yes. You’re free to leave. Your pay will appear in your account by the end of the week.”

The man made to leave but the leader suddenly placed a bloody hand on the doctor’s shoulder, halting him. 

“If you speak of this to anyone…know that we have all the resources we need to destroy you.”

The doctor sighed and despondently walked away. Suddenly he stopped and turned around.

“What are you planning on doing with her?”

The leader looked at the doctor with raised eyebrows and pointed to the cameraman, along with the two men by the tent, drinking whisky and asked, “Are you really incapable of putting pieces TOGETHER? No wonder you’re only good for taking things apart.”

The doctor tried to hide his disgust and said, “But she will not survive it. Not after the process you just had me do on her!”

The leader shushed the doctor. “That is none of your concern.”

The doctor wanted very badly to tell the leader that actually it very much was his concern but…he couldn’t object any further. Good Doctors cared for their patients’ survival and wellbeing… He was not a Good Doctor. What he had just done to that woman was not what Good Doctors did…Besides, if he objected much more he would most likely be killed on the spot. The doctor took his bag and left, feeling like the scum of the earth.

The leader walked back to the Pillar, impatient. So many delays…! First, his masters had allowed that the woman be used for a film to be given to one of the Organization’s largest benefactors. Fair enough. Forbidden Fruit deserved a little cut of the pie. But *UGH* the time it took for them to select their “actors”! It wasn’t like anyone cared what men were in the video, the woman is the main attraction isn’t she? 

Then there was that foolish child that had stumbled upon the project and nearly compromised the entire operation! Luckily his retard friend came and was too stupid to see what was in front of him. Such ignorance and complacency is what got the Organization as far as it was, what did it matter if there was yet another retard running around? Let him run! The Organization’s work of instigating the growth of the feeble-minded and the extirpation of the wise was what kept everything in control…Encouraging stupidity, advertising it as hilarious or even heroic...Failing the geniuses, making sure those whose intellect was too high would never be empowered with a diploma, thus never given a chance to impact the world in a way that the Organization couldn’t control…all in a day’s work.

And now, the doctor was getting cold feet! When would the idiocy end!?

The Leader sighed and composed himself.

‘It’s fine,’ he told himself. ‘they’re getting what they want, in the end. They always do…’

“Hey, um, hate to be a bother but um…when do we start, man?”

The Leader looked at the two men that were standing in front of him. They stank of whiskey and a quick glance at them told the Leader that he wasn’t looking at men, really. Just creatures that let their basest instincts run their lives, their insecurities deemed too strong to overcome until that statement became true and they became enslaved to what was once truly pleasurable, now an addiction where they had to push things further and further just to reach that initial temporary happiness. Clearly this had kept them from obtaining any kind of healthy relationships and led them to the line of work that they led now. The Leader was disgusted by them, but, seeing as they were in the employ of Forbidden Fruits, one of the Organization’s most productive branches, he couldn’t afford to treat them too badly.

He forced a smile and said, “Oh soon, soon enough, don’t worry. We just need to wait for the bleeding to stop.”

One of the men grinned perversely and said, “Hey man, I don’t mind a little blood, y’know what I’m saying?” He made a disgusting slurping sound and the man standing next to him laughed. 

The Leader almost left then and there. Hopefully most of their talk was the whiskey they had been given, (they worked best when drunk) but something told the Leader that that wasn’t the case…

“Regardless, I don’t think your company wants actual blood in their video…”

The pervert snickered and said conspiratorially, “You’d be surprised-“

“Ok,” the Leader held his hand up, not wanting to hear it. “I’ll see what I can do…”

Thunder crashed and the wind picked up more, bending trees and whipping grass and dust up into the air. 

“We’d better do this soon…before it starts to rain…”

Suddenly, the park darkened deeply. Deeper than before.

The last of the bright evening sky had disappeared. Now, not only was the sky covered end to end with dark, angry clouds, but dusk came on and night began to fall. 

“Excellent, the dark will conceal us further. We are hidden…”

That was the last thing the leader said before He came.

A bright flash of lightning shattered over the group, shaking the ground, openly declaring its fury. The Leader was about to say something about maybe putting up some more shelter before the rain came but his attention was seized by a dark silhouette that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the field. The guards were still guarding the clearing, giving no indication that the sanctity of the clearing had been breached. 

“GUARDS!” The Leader shouted. 

The false policemen looked behind them and, seeing the intruder, pulled out of hiding their submachine guns and lasers were pointed at the Intruder.

The figure was short, still and, when lightning flashed, they could see it was hooded as well.

The Leader tried to threaten the Shadowy figure.

“Get out of here, you’re interfering with…(a quick pause as the Leader quickly decided on a bogus reasoning)…a Federal Investigation! Turn around and head back from where you came or we WILL prosecute!”

The figure never moved.

“If you don’t move we will fire!”

The figure never flinched. 

“You have no idea with what you’re meddling in, kid!” The Leader suspected he was looking at an edgy teenager that was doing something on a dare and would soon say some mass produced political bullshit or some just as overly-produced internet phrase, or both, seeing as the two had sickeningly become one and the same.

The Leader expected this or some tentative steps back as the kid slowly realized the seriousness of the situation.

What he wasn’t expecting was a yawn coming from the figure, followed by some arm stretching and a muttered, “sorry, must’ve dozed off…that last jump left me ‘bone-tired’ hehe…were you sayin’ something? i wasn’t listening”

The Leader angrily pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the figure. He had lost what little patience he had. 

The figure didn’t flich, yet again, but an unimpressed “nice gun” came to the Leader’s ears. “must be expensive, huh?”

The Leader pulled back the hammer to his Smith and Wesson and said coldly, “That is no concern of yours.”

The figure shrugged and said, “ehh, maybe. but…what you’re doing to that lady and that pillar concerns me especially. now, I’ll let you all off with a warning if you go back to where you came from, leave the lady and the pillar, and never come back and make sure that none of your kind ever sets foot within 100 miles of Mt. Ebbot”

The Leader chuckled darkly and holstered his weapon. Suddenly, he held his hand up and a red light began to emanate from the pillar and voices….Voices were heard. Sobbings, cries for help, threats, shouts, screams of the victims of rape and murder for millennia…

“Do you hear that?” said the Leader. “That is the heartbeat of Reality. The echo of what once was and what always will be…You, like so many others, are doomed to this fate. Burning forever, forever…burning.” The figure was silent.

“But,” The Leader said, “there are those of us that are chosen to oversee this…to rise above the low levels of our human evolution. We are called to be Masters and Lords so that we may rule over this realm and rise to eternal greatness. We become like gods-“

Suddenly he stopped, the figure was laughing at him, a deep gasping laugh and it was even holding its sides! He was being mocked in front of his men.

“It’s true!” he said, desperate to reclaim his bravos. “I draw energy from Them, from the Lords of this dimension and I…call them…INTO…ME!!!” Suddenly a great flash of red broke out and the clearing was filled with a horrible presence. All the humans there fell to their faces and began to pray their required prayers, lending power to their Leader’s dark ally. 

A massive figure levitated above the Leader, its arms long and grasping, its chest heaving, its head adorned with a crown of horns, its eyes small but opened wide, its mouth lined with row upon row of fangs. 

“Behold!” The Leader called in triumph "one of our great Masters!” All bowed and worshipped it…except for the figure.

He craned his head up then a bored voice said, “yeah, sorry i don’t see anything.” 

The Leader was taken off guard by this and he said, “Surely you must be blind, our master is here with us!”

The figure said nothing then proceeded to remove its hood. The group gasped. What was standing before them was no human. A skeleton stood there in the clearing. 

He looked at the Leader with his large orbits and lazily grinned. “Yeah I can see him.” His voice had changed from mumbling to deep and clear. 

The Leader grinned. “So you admit you see Him. Our Master, in all his glory!”

The skeleton snickered and smiled. “Ummm…’glory’…sure heheheh.”

“Why do you laugh? You can see him!”

“Yeah but I don’t think we are looking at the same thing, bucko.”

The Leader’s confidence faltered. “What…do you mean?”

The skeleton said, “You humans have a hard time seeing past your own dimension, so it’s easy for you to be deceived.”

The skeleton shot its hand forward grasping for something. The monster in the air gasped and began to gag, clutching its neck. 

The skeleton’s hand conformed to a shape that it would be if it were grasping something. His right eye began to glow with a bizarre mix of blue and yellow light. 

“Wanna see what I see?” He invited.

Without waiting for a response, the skeleton lifted its arm and its hand glowed with a blue light.

The monster in the sky disappeared and in the hand of the skeleton writhed a dark pillar of darkness. A silhouette of some thin, frail creature. All that was clearly shown was its mouth, a huge gnashing pit with a line of large teeth and a snake’s tongue. The skeleton had its fist clamped on the imp’s throat.

Without a word, the skeleton tossed the imp in the air like a balloon and the creature sailed in the air wailing. Suddenly a massive skull-like structure appeared alongside the creature, shaped like the skull of a dragon. It growled at the imp as it sailed through the air and chased it until the thing opened its mouth, a ball of light quickly growing in its mouth until…

*rrrrRRRRRRR-R-R-R-R BLAM!* A massive blast of light shot towards the imp, evaporating it instantly. 

The dragon skull vanished, its duty fulfilled.

The humans looked at the sky in stunned awe and looked down. 

The Leader screamed. The skeleton had appeared just inches away from him, its eye sockets dark and its voice a deep rumble that shook the ground. 

“D o y o u w a n t t o h a v e a b a d t i m e ?”

The humans screamed and ran for their lives, all but the Leader.

The Leader, seeing that all was lost, attempted to shoot the monster.

He pulled out his gun and pointed it right at the creature’s skull.

He pulled the trigger. 

The shot rang out and the shock ran through his arm. 

But the skeleton wasn’t in front of him. 

He heard a voice whisper behind him. 

“You really aren’t a very good shot are ya?”

The man spun around but felt his Soul shake and he suddenly was unable to move, his body paralyzed. Suddenly the skeleton made a pushing motion with his arm and the Leader sailed through the air like a rock towards the trees. He saw the skeleton’s face appear again, winking at him and shrugging. Lightning flashed and he was closer to the trees. Another crash and flash and the trees had become massive bones, growing out of the ground. Another flash and the bones had turned, sharp ends facing him. They came closer and closer… The Leader screamed and the last thing he heard in this life was…

“Geeeeet dunked on!!!!”

\

Sans took a deep breath and sat down for a moment by the impaled corpse of the Leader. This human had had a lot of blood on his hands. Level 14. Quite the killer… Karma certainly was a bitch. Came back and bit him where it hurt…

Sans sighed and recalled his bones and the bone that had impaled the man was replaced by a tree with a large upturned root that was covered in blood. An accident. That’s what happened. 

Sans turned his attention to the Pillar which still stood ominous in the clearing but looked a lot smaller than it had before.

Sans clapped his hands and three gaster blasters surrounded the pillar, obliterating it. There was an explosion and a hideous smell and the dark pillar was gone.

Rain finally began to pour and began to wash away the dirt, blood and evil of the clearing, cleansing it as the world always attempts to cleanse itself from the violence and crimes commited by her inhabitants. 

Sans covered his head with his hood again to keep out the rain. 

He walked over to the tent and looked inside. What he saw saddened him.

“It’s ok…” he said softly. “Everything’s gonna be ok now.”

\

At the hospital across the park, a nurse was surprised to see another patient in the emergency room. A naked woman with a massive scar on her side, crying uncontrollably.

She had a clipboard at the end of her bed with symptoms and diagnostics written on it.

It was filled out in Comic Sans.


	17. Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes we need reminders...and as Ray learns, they aren't always pleasant.

Ray woke up the next morning feeling as if he were reborn. He opened his eyes to see Asriel asleep on the floor, curled up with a pillow. Frisk was asleep in a chair, her head lolled to the side. Sunlight streamed in through the east facing window and Ray could hear birds chirping: Cardinals twittering, Doves cooing and Starlings buzzing. Ray sat up as he tried to remember his dream. He knew it was important but as he awoke, it began to slip his mind. 

Panic gripped him and he began to look around for a piece of paper. He saw a piece of paper on the stand next to him, a pencil just above it. 

Not stopping to wonder why it was laid out so near the bed, Ray grabbed the paper and the pencil quickly and began to scribble down images and phrases before he forgot them.

Most of it didn’t make sense to him, even less so as he wrote on and the dream began to fade.

“Power in the darkness…Go to the places of worship and look for the Watchers…He betrayed us…Never alone (not in the good way only!)…The shining man is afraid…Nothing is at it seems…Watch Frisk!...{Picture of the judgement hall}…{picture of the pillar}…{sketch of Ray’s sword reforged}…{picture of Asriel and Frisk embracing…Asriel seems much younger than usual…he’s also transparent?}…Sans knows…”

Ray dropped his paper and fell back, covering his face. He looked at the paper and read it over, his breathing getting fast and shallow. He grimaced, both at the atrocious handwriting and the dark messages that lay in the paper. 

He hated it…it wasn’t fair! He was just beginning to get a normal happy life again with his family! Why did he always have to be put in these situations? He deserved a rest after the hell he and Asriel had been through.

He looked down at his brother asleep on the floor and looked at Frisk. He could guess what had happened. Asriel, due to both his spiritual makeup as a monster (being literally made of love, kindness, joy and all the rest) and his love for his brother, had stayed up watching over Ray. Frisk, worrying for Asriel, must have stayed as well, also probably wanting to watch her new sibling. 

Ray smiled. It was good that Asriel and Frisk became so close. He of course didn’t see what else was forming under the surface. Maybe nobody did just yet…not that soon.

He looked again at his paper of self-declared doom and crumpled it up, throwing it to the trash can. He silently double fisted the air. It landed perfectly.

The paper had knocked over a mug and the clang woke up Frisk, making her raise her head, her face wincing at the apparent crick in her neck. 

She opened her eyes and saw Ray sitting up in his bed, awake. She got up and walked to him. 

“You feeling better?” she asked, her voice quiet and ragged from just waking up. 

Ray smiled and nodded, not wanting to talk just yet. 

Frisk smiled back and noticed Asriel asleep on the floor. She sighed and smiled again, rolling her eyes, acting like she was mildly annoyed with Asriel’s sleeping habits.

Ray smiled too, but in his heart, he felt that something was not quite right still. A nagging feeling came to him. What about what had happened yesterday? Did Sans do something last night? Ray felt like he had to make sure. But he wouldn’t get pulled in. He couldn’t. He had to leave things in more capable hands, like Sans and his family. He would just mess it up. His and Asriel’s victory over the Killer back in their time was hard fought and barely had. He didn’t even have a full sword. 

Excuses and copouts ran through Ray’s mind as he desperately tried to find some way to get out of having to deal with any more murderers and megalomaniacs. 

He would call Sans and see if everything was alright but that would be all he would do. He was not going to pursue these people. Besides, it was most likely just a random occurrence. A random pillar in a random park in a random city being tended to by random weirdos. 

In the back of his mind, however, Ray knew this was a copout. He knew that there not only MIGHT be more to what had happened, there most likely WAS.

He tried to put it out of his mind as he saw Frisk hear her cell phone ring. She walked out of the room to answer the call. 

Ray was just getting out of bed and Asriel was finally stirring when Ray heard crying in the living room. 

Ray walked into the living room and saw Frisk crying on the couch, her phone in her hands….

\

Four days later, a group of monsters and humans were gathered around a beautiful coffin in a human cemetery. 

Many monsters and humans were either in respectful silence or openly weeping.

Frisk’s grandmother was being buried.

Before falling into the underground, Frisk’s grandmother had been the only family she had. Her father had never been around and her mother left her at an early age. Her grandmother, Rose, had been her emotional support for all her years.

When Rose had had a stroke and had been in the emergency room for over 24 hours, Frisk had run away, not wanting a life where she couldn’t have anyone to love. 

In her despair, she had climbed a mountain to escape from her life and the rest is history.

Believing her grandmother to be dead, Frisk had agreed to be Toriel’s adopted child. However, a few weeks later, Frisk had learned that Rose was indeed still alive and living in a nursing home. 

Frisk initially was concerned how she would react to seeing Frisk in the care of another person, much less a monster. Her fears however were unnecessary. Toriel and Rose got along very well and became close friends. Which explained why Toriel was one of the most heartbroken to hear that Rose had died in her sleep. 

Rose and Frisk didn’t have hardly any relatives, but they had many friends. Many humans were gathered: grocers, police officers, a librarian, a butcher, some retired secretaries and the pastor of the local church. It was the pastor that had given the eulogy for Rose and he led the group of humans in several hymns and prayers.

To the monsters, the entire process was both quite foreign to them and incredibly familiar. The actions and the practices of the ceremony were very different for many of the monsters there for whom it was their first human burial. Toriel, Asgore and Frisk had told them most of what to expect, however.

The emotions and the words said at the funeral, however, were very familiar to the monsters and reminded them of their own funerals as well. 

Both types had the same emotions in them: loss, reflection, appreciation and love for those gathered, hope that they and their Departed would be reunited after death…

Ray stood in a suit that he had been given. His heart broke to see Frisk and his family so sad. He had not known Rose. He never had the chance to meet her. But hearing the many monsters and humans who praised her for her steadfast encouragement and cheer made him wish he could have known her. 

A tear formed in his eye but it never dropped. He brushed it aside.

As the pastor finished up the ceremony, the procession was asked to sing Amazing Grace.

Most of the humans knew the song well and sung loud and clear. All that is, except Ray. Frisk sang it without fear. It was her grandmother’s favorite hymn. 

Ray didn’t know the words but he listened to the lyrics spellbound as did the monsters gathered.

“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now I see.  
When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the Sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun…”

These words fell on Ray’s ears. He told himself that it was due time to begin inspecting the religions of his people and the conversation at the party came back to his mind.

\

Ray and the group were walking back to their cars when Frisk walked up to Ray and asked him something pretty random. 

“Ray, is it true you called Asriel…Blue? When you two were little?”

Ray was surprised by this question and he blushed with the embarrassing memory.

“Yeah…I don’t remember why I called him that…I just remember that name meant something when I was younger…maybe I was just projecting a bit…”

Frisk looked at Asriel and said thoughtfully, “Yeah…that happens sometimes…”

Frisk walked ahead, trying to ask Asriel something. Ray looked down and kept walking.

“somthin’ on your mind, kid?”

Sans was walking next to him.

Ray shook his head in denial. “No, it’s nothing…”

Sans looked at him and gave him a look that didn’t miss anything. His voice cleared again.

“Hiding from your fate is just another way to make it happen faster.”

Ray looked at Sans unhappily. “I’m not ready…”

“Kid, you’re more than ready. There’s a reason you and Asriel made it to this timeline.”

Ray didn’t say anything. Sans continued.

“Ray, what’s it gonna take for you to see that you can’t sit this one out, no matter how tired or scared you are?”

It was like Sans was reading his mind.

“I just can’t Sans, I mean, it’s my life and I’m in charge of what I do with it, right?”

Sans sighed. “Sure, but-“

Ray interrupted him. “Then I can choose what I do with it.”

“Of course, but Ray-“

“I mean, I deserve a break!” Ray’s voice was rising in his indignation. “I deserve to-!”

Ray wasn’t watching where he was walking however, and he tripped on a low headstone and fell onto his hands and knees. He angrily muttered something but when he looked up, his face froze and the color drained from him.

Sans walked up to him. “You alright kid?”

The other monsters and Frisk walked up too, noticing his fall.

Ray was staring at several tombstones next to each other, slowly craning his head as he read the four of them. He then gasped and shook and his head fell and he collapsed on the ground.

Sans shook Ray and called for him. Other monsters anxiously asked what happened. A few humans from the funeral called 911.

Frisk and Asriel looked at the four tombstones. All were the same make except for the smaller one on the far right.

Three tombstones were connected to one massive grave and had three names written on it: Aaron Dosh, Mary Farow Dosh and Ray Dosh. The day of death was the same for all three: Oct. 20, 2000. Underneath was written, "They were taken from us too soon. May your memories live on and may the Lord grant you the peace you three deserve."

Next to this tomb was a single small headstone with the name "BLUE" written on it with his death date being Nov. 1, 2000, a couple of weeks after his masters had died. It said, "His sorrow is now over. A loyal dog and companion until death and beyond."

Ray Dosh lay on the ground wailing. He had thought he was stronger than he really was. Of course he had to be reminded…

Life is short, especially among humans and it can be taken away in a moment’s notice. 

He was a fool to think he had any control…That he had a say in what his life would be.

Maybe some are given that luxury, but for a few, they are selected to do great things. But great things come from immense trials and some die facing these trials when they go through them without aid.

Clearly Someone Else was in control of Ray’s life. And whoever that someone was, was scolding him; shaming him; reminding him that he was not in control… 

Ray cried at his family’s grave, his body unknowingly directly above the corpse of the Ray Dosh of that dimension. 

He realized that dying was not always something that happens physically. A part of him was dying there and then and he knew it. 

He had felt this way before. He had lost his family before but there was something different this time. There was no hard, smooth rock pressed against his face and no hideous laughter.

Instead, there was grass, hard dry grass, but grass all the same. Also, the ground was hot, warmed by the sun.

Also, the biggest difference was that this time, he was not alone. He felt hugs and tears and words of sympathy, sorrow and reassurance fell over him.

He also thought maybe…just maybe…the Someone Else who was In Control was comforting him too.

This Someone Else could both smite him down senseless and raise him back up in a matter of minutes…

‘Who is In Control here?’ Ray wondered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no new chapters. Sorry about that. Temporary setbacks.


	18. A Time to Gather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans has a talk with Ray and Asriel...

The living room was silent except for the ticking of the clock and the sounds of cars on the highway and birds in the trees outside. 

Ray sat on the couch in the living room alone, holding his broken sword in his hand and scrolling through a page on his laptop.

Ray had decided that it was time that he figured out what era his sword came from so he was looking up different sword styles throughout history to see if he could find a look alike.

He looked at Claymores, Scimitars, and Shotels and could find nothing until he began to look far, far back.

Then, reading an article about the Iron Age, he saw it. 

A short, double-edged straight iron sword with a leaf-like shape.

It was a Celtic La T’ene short sword.

The Celtics…Ray had heard that name just the day before!

Fascinating...a basketball team has their own kind of weaponry!

Ray chuckled at the obviously incorrect notion then sighed and ran a hand through his hair, trying to cling to that temporary light of humor. It was one of the first he had had in several days.

The discovery of his family’s gravesite had sent Ray into a silent stupor for the rest of the day. When he had finally ceased crying at his family’s grave, he had sat up, his arms limp and his eyes half shut, not emoting at all and hardly acknowledging those around him, including both Sans and Asriel. 

All of Ray’s family and friends were deeply concerned for Ray when he had come home and did not say a word. 

The next day was much the same in that Ray did not speak much but at the end of the day, this streak was broken when Ray, while sitting next to Asriel and Frisk, suddenly embraced his two step-siblings and said simply, “I’m so sorry…I love you guys,” as tears ran down his face.

The next day, Ray had a few conversations with his family about his current state.

The day after that, Ray had smiled at a joke Sans had told Toriel in a text. 

This day, Ray had decided that he couldn’t hide what was happening around him. He had called Sans and told him about his dreams and apologized for not taking things seriously. Sans of course had told him “eh, fuhgeddaboudit, ‘s all good, kid.”

Sans then told him that he, Ray and Asriel should meet up and have a “chat”.

Ray agreed that more had to be shared but he was surprised that Asriel be in the conversation. When he wondered to himself why he felt this way, he decided that he was trying to protect Asriel…

When the obvious cliché-ness of the sentiment hit him, Ray decided that it was only right that Asriel be there. He had held just as much of his own in the fight against the Killer as Ray did.  
What was happening was just as much Asriel’s business as it was Ray’s and Sans’. 

The Chat was happening that day and the three conspirators had agreed to meet in the woods behind the Dreemurr residence. Behind the house, the ground fell into a creek bed that sometimes was a bone-dry ravine, other times a muddy line of quicksand and flies, other times a delicious babbling brook with an occasional influx of chubs, minnows and crayfish. The creek was within a small forest of Cottonwoods, Pines and Mulberry trees.

Cicadas buzzed in the trees. The wind blew the trees as the leaves of the cottonwoods rustled noisily. Flies and butterflies and ants were gathered in mass in the creek which was mostly a moist line of mud except for a small pool of water that still attracted some small frogs and mosquitos. 

Ray sat on the ground by Asriel. He was wishing that the Dreemurrs had been able to put some kind of magic influence on the creek so that it was always full and flowing. Maybe make some flowers and grass grow where there was only exposed roots, gravel, dirt and dead reeds. He had only seen the creek in this dry, half-choked-by-dirt state. He remembered Asgore speaking on how when it once was full and he had been there visiting Frisk how he had seen it full of fish and clams and many other kinds of wildlife could be seen drinking from its clear waters. When Asriel asked why it wasn’t maintained to stay that way (he knew his father knew a few magical techniques to initiate that) Asgore began to say something about how gardening was always more his area and would have said more if it weren’t for a warning look that Toriel shot him, not as hostile though as she once was, as Frisk had confided in her step-brothers. 

Ray hoped that Toriel could eventually find it in her heart to forgive her former husband. Unforgiveness was unbecoming of a monster, especially one so kind as she…

Maybe Asgore’s continued presence at home and Asriel’s return could fix that…

Ray’s thoughts were interrupted as he suddenly realized that Sans was present. Asriel had been talking to him for a while as Ray’s mind wandered. 

“Oh Sans, I didn’t see you there,” Ray stood up. 

“it’s aight, you didn’t miss much. i was just tellin the prince here why he’s here, too.”

Asriel shifted uncomfortably.

“welp, better get this started…Ray, why don’t you start off by telling Asriel what you saw at the park?”

Ray sighed resignedly and nodded. He proceeded to tell Asriel how he had pursued one of the human kids to a clearing during the water balloon fight and what he saw there and after, when he had suddenly fallen ill. 

Asriel lowered his head and said, “Ray…why didn’t you tell me and Frisk? Or Mom and Dad? We could’ve helped…”

“I’m sorry Asriel. I guess I thought I was protecting you but…looks like it was only making things worse. I couldn’t get the help I needed when I kept things a secret…”

Sans cleared his throat after an uncomfortable silence.

“okayyy, anyways…wanna hear what happened to those humans?”

Ray nodded. “Yeah, what happened?”

Sans then proceeded to tell the two about the confrontation at the pillar, the extent of the resources the wicked humans had access to and the presence of the Imp.

It was the Imp and the words the creature had said through its human puppets that shook Ray so much. It sounded too much like the Killer or the monster controlling the Killer to be a coincidence. 

Also, the fact that Sans had taken the life of the Leader disturbed Ray and Asriel deeply. Asriel asked Sans what his LV was, most likely expecting a high number. 

Sans shrugged and simply stated that it was still at LV 1. This had been the only time he had ever killed any human or monster. 

He also assured them that the Leader was a dangerous human to let live and that his execution was not done on impulse.

“i’ve been pretty busy, all the same. this wasn’t the first time I had to deal with those creatures…”

Ray needed answers.

“Sans, what are these things? Can you really kill them??”

“as for the second question, no not really. they tend to stick around, hehe”

Ray’s look told Sans he wasn’t in the mood for joking around. Sans sighed and his voice deepened again.

“These ‘things’ are eternal beings; they’re made entirely of magic. Dark magic.”

Ray and Asriel looked at each other in wonder. 

“There’s such things?” Asriel asked in astonishment.

Sans gave Asriel an interesting look. “Yep. It’s part of the Great Hierarchy. There are basically Four types of living creatures. Beasts, Humans, Monsters and Entities. (Those are the group that those Creatures belong to, but they’re not the only ones in that group.) Each Being is categorized based on their magic to physical matter ratio. Beasts (Animals, Plants and everything in between) have no magic in them or at least the magic in them is miniscule and is almost never seen. Humans are mostly physical matter, but there is some magic to them as they have the potential to manifest their magical properties into visible and observable actions. Monsters are mostly made up of magic but still have some physical matter to them. Entities are almost completely made of magic and have little to no physical attributes to them or at least none most can see. This means that they can appear in any form they wish or can even be not seen if they so desire.”

“Are there any…Good Entities?” Ray asked.

Sans smiled. “Oh yeah. There’s actually more ‘Good’ ones than ‘Bad’. Problem is, the ‘Good’ ones have to abide by Laws and can’t always show themselves or be too obvious. The ‘Bad’ ones also have a couple Laws that they have to abide by but they have enough legal room to be able to wreak a lot of havoc with Humans.”

“Laws? Legal Room? Who makes these Laws? Is there like a King Entity?”

“...you could say that, I guess…”

“Can’t he, like, stop the Bad Entities from doing what they’re doing? Or does he just not care about them?”

“…He is and He does…” said Sans, his voice rumbling and his Eye gently flickering.

Ray and Asriel felt fear grip them, but not fear of Sans. Whatever it was that gripped them so, was affecting Sans too and had caused his Eye to flicker. Maybe Sans was afraid too? Or maybe something had stirred his magic up and made it flicker to life? Ray noticed Asriel’s eyes, too, had, for a moment, changed; they had gone fully white and flickered with a small white flame. Ray also felt something stir in him, too and saw that his Focuser on his arm had a deep blue highlight around it, like it was undergoing a sudden surge in magic.

The moment passed, however, and the three conspirators caught their breath. Yes, even Sans looked like he had just had a Moment, but he was the first to fully recover. 

“welp…that was a taste of Good Entity right there” he said, his voice going back to his mumbling, joking self.

“That was GOOD Entity? That was horrifying!” said Ray as he was still shaking from the ordeal. 

“yeah, even the Good can be scary sometimes. you just gotta look at the results” he winked. “c’mon, don’t tell me you don’t feel…satisfied? maybe refreshed?”

Ray didn’t say anything at first but as the shock wore off, he couldn’t deny that he felt…more awake, more prepared, more determined…

“course ya do.” Sans said. “that’s what it’s for."

Ray and Asriel nodded.

“Now…concerning those Bad Entities…you don’t have to worry about them just yet. There ain’t a lot of ‘em around here”

“Why’s that, Sans?” Ray asked.

Sans shrugged. “welp…let’s just say…if they ever do show up around here…” Sans’ eyes darkened. “they have a bad time…cause, y’see…unlike most people, I can see them, clear as day; little slivers of dark magic and evil harassing humanity and whispering to each other, plotting the downfall of both monsters and humans…” Sans’ eyes brightened after he finished this statement. 

“How can you see them, and we can’t? Can only monsters see them?” Ray asked.

“I haven’t seen any dark magic beings, if that’s what you’re asking, Ray.” Asriel replied.

“makes sense,” Sans said. “not even most monsters can see them fully. But, all monsters have a kind of sense to them. Az, have you ever felt…protective of any humans? Like that you had to watch over them and protect them from…something?”

Asriel lowered his head nervously and anxiously drew a line in the dirt with his white foot.

“Well…yeah…”

Sans stood, waiting for a less vague answer, more for Ray’s benefit than his own. 

Asriel continued on. “Well, I’ve always been protective of you, Ray. You’re my brother and…if anything were to happen to you…I don’t know what I would do…”

Sans nodded. “The love between brothers is strong, Prince. Trust me, I know. If anything were to happen to Paps…” Sans’ voice sank for a bit, but returned quickly. “but…I was talking about something more than that.”

Asriel nervously fidgeted.

Sans dug on. “…like with a certain ambassador??”

Asriel wrung his ear, nervously. Ray raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t seen Az this nervous in a long time.

“W-well, I...” The Boss Monster stammered.

Sans chuckled. “relax, kid. It’s totally normal”

Asriel sighed and nodded, almost like he had been caught lying. “Yeah…”

“monsters are meant to be that way with humans that are close to them. When a Dark Entity attacks a human, whether through an illness, panic attack, a depressive slump or even an attempt on the human’s life, any monster that’s close to the human gets a deep sense of foreboding and, usually, comes to the human’s aid.”

Asriel looked up in confusion then his eyes grew wide with realization. Then he relaxed and breathed easily but still nervously. 

Sans went on. “usually the simple presence of a monster is enough to keep the Dark Entity away, but, if it ever comes down to it, Asriel,” Sans said this to make sure he had the Prince’s attention. “magic attacks can wound Dark Entities.”

“Oh…r-really?” Asriel asked.

“yyupp,” Sans lazily drawled. “physical attacks like gunshots, knife wounds and blows from fists do little to no damage to a Dark Entity. But, magic attacks do as much damage to a Dark Entity as they would a Human. That’s ‘cause magical attacks wound the Soul, not the body, or at least a monster’s magic does. And Asriel, since you’re a Boss Monster, that makes you very powerful and makes your attacks fatal to a Dark Entity. That’s why I’m telling you to continue to keep watch on Frisk and Ray. If they do get attacked by a Dark Entity, it could be disastrous, especially to Frisk.” 

Sans’ voice became clearer and more authoritative as his admonition went on, which made Ray and Asriel know that Sans was serious and meant what he was saying.

“Why would it be worse for Frisk?” Asriel asked, worried.

“Ray has a way to defend himself. His shield, when activated is an orb of pure Good Magic right from his Soul; a shield of Integrity that can protect him from a lot of the weapons that Dark Entities throw to wound human’s Souls and Bodies. Frisk doesn’t have that…not right now, that is. Also…” 

Here Sans’ eyes darkened once again.

“…their hatred for Frisk is very strong…”

Asriel’s hands shook, both in fear and protective anger (or both; sometimes they’re the same thing) and he asked, “Why?”

Sans actually shrugged and said, “Honestly, I don’t know for sure. But…I’m guessing it’s from her freeing Monsterkind and bringing them back to the Surface.”

After a silence went on, Ray asked a question that was bothering him.

“Sans, you said my shield is magical?”

Sans nodded.

“I thought it was soul energy?”

“Ray, Magic and Soul energy are the same thing. You can’t have magic unless you have a Soul. Magic can only exist if something with a Soul or a Soul itself where to place magic into it.”

“So…if those Dark Entities are made entirely of magic…”

“Entities are Souls.” Sans finished his thought. 

“And…my shield…is basically just the Integrity I have in my Soul?”

“Yup, when an attribute is focused enough, it becomes a tangible form of defense or a powerful weapon…sometimes both. It depends.”

Asriel spoke up. “Ray, all magic is is the manifestation of your Soul’s Will. Human’s Souls are strong but…they can’t manifest their will into magic. Not unless a monster revives it in them…”

“Why though? Why do we humans have the potential to use magic but we aren’t born with it?”

Sans looked like he was gonna say something but a voice called from the home.

“Ray! Asriel! Children? Are you over there?”

Ray’s eyes opened in worry but Sans’ lazy smirk and him giving a thumbs-up reminded Ray that they weren’t doing anything that would get them in trouble. 

“Yeah Mom!” He called out. “We’re just here at the creek!”

Looking up, Ray could see Toriel walking out of the door. “There’s pie ready inside! Frisk has already had several pieces!” 

Asriel gasped and ran up the hill yelling, “FRISK! Save some for me!”

Frisk poked her head out of the home. Her face had pieces of pie all over and she gave Asriel a teasing look that said, “If you want it, you better come get it!”

Ray looked at Sans and asked if he wanted to head over.

Sans shook his head. 

“sorry, kid. me and paps have plans today with undyne and alphys.”

“Oh, ok Sans.”

“but hey kid, before you go…”

“Yeah?”

“…I really am sorry…About your family in this timeline…I know it’s hard but…You’ve got another family that loves you and you have friends that would lay down their lives for ya.”

Ray looked at Sans and embraced the skeleton.

“Thanks for being there for me, Sans…” He said.

Sans shrugged and hugged Ray back. “No problem…”

Eventually Ray made his way up to his home and Sans snapped his fingers, making his way into his home where his brother and Undyne were training to cook in the kitchen.


	19. Respite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk's time in the Underground hasn't left her without her fair share of scars...

Crickets chirped outside of the Dreemurr residence as the inhabitants within slept. The New Moon was hiding in its monthly shroud of shadow, leaving the Earth without its light for a while. In response to this cylce, the early Humans of Earth fashioned fires in the huts, caves and temples they dwelt in to drive away the dark until these lights grew into huge roaring flames in hearths, until one day, the lights were incased in glass bulbs and lights of many colors shone nightly on Earth, creating light for humanity to act in.

But these lights aren’t flawless. They burn out, as the ancient fires that preceded them died out over time as well. Also, these lights only light our world physically and in our immediate surroundings. 

Outside of these lights, the Night still lies. As it always lies, and Dark Things thrive in the dark.

Ancient Humans knew of the Dark Creatures that lay just out of reach of their cities, camps and farms. The Wolves, Cave Lions, Jaguars, and Leopards hunted on the peripherals of these lights, their eyes just visible on the edge of sight…

But Modern Humans have either tamed, killed or frightened most of these predators and then people told themselves they had nothing left to fear except each other and they began to wage war on their neighbors, watching for thieves, killers, rapists. But at least the Beasts were gone. At least nothing waited in the Dark anymore with bloody arms and drooling fangs….

At least, that’s what Modern Humans like to think.

Ancient Humans knew of the Other and Worse Enemies that preyed upon those who are alone and weak.

Dark Entities.

Known throughout the World by many names: Evil Spirits, Yokai, Demons, Jinn, Banshees, Sluagh…

Humans learned quickly that no matter how large they built their Fires, Dark Entities would come upon them in many ways; sometimes posing as a Beast of Unnatural proportions, sometimes stealing away children and women into the Night to have their ways with them, other times invisible but pleasing themselves by tricking the easily-tampered-with senses of humans, causing them to have many sleepless nights and be bitter for lack of sleep during the day and forever fearful at night; a delicious combo for Dark Entities. 

Today, Humans still try to drive away the Night with bright lights and loud festivals but these distractions only work temporarily, for just outside, the Dark Ones wait endlessly, waiting invisible and unnoticed, until One is alone and the Voices whisper and One’s nerves are shattered and One wishes desperately for either sleep or friends or even death.

One was awake in the Dreemurr residence. One was laying in bed, their heart pounding in their chest, their nightmares vivid in their mind.

One was Frisk and she had had a nightmare.

\

Frisk was standing in a dimly lit area surrounded by darkness. In the light she saw a little Flower; a random curiosity for anyone else but for Frisk, a sight that stirred up within her an indescribable mix of pity, longing, fear and distrust.

This only got worse when the flower suddenly manifested a face.

It smiled at her, but not in a friendly way. It was a mockery of friendliness: a front that she knew all too well.

It spoke in a high-pitched, nasally voice.

“Howdy! Well, well, looks like you followed my advice, doesn’t it?”

Frisk couldn’t dare ask what Flowey meant. She wouldn’t play this game, not again!

Flowey grinned darkly and said accusingly, “You finally forgot about me…HAHA! I knew you had it in you!” He laughed, accusing her. Hatred ran thick in his voice.

“I…didn’t forget you!” Frisk finally managed to say, instantly regretting it, knowing she was playing right into Flowey’s trap.

She must’ve winced, cause the Flower laughed hideously and replied, “I see that look…the look of regret and failure…You Idiot…you really…*sarcastically dramatic sigh* I almost believed you for a moment there…”

“Flowe-Az-umm…” Frisk stuttered.

“HAHAHAHAH! YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO CALL ME!!” He taunted. “SOME FRIEND!”

And then something truly awful happened.

Flowey changed into a young Asriel, curled up in a ball, wounds all over him, turning into dust, slowly.

He was crying and had an arm reaching out as six pixelated figures surrounded him. Frisk couldn’t tell what they were. At first, she thought she saw her six Monster friends all turned away from Asriel, whispering harmful thoughts aloud, cursing themselves and the wounded Boss Monster in between them. Then she thought she saw Six Humans standing around him, each with a different weapon, each with his dust covering them like a sickly blanket; she could hear shouts of “Kill the Child Murderer!” in the distance as the Figures stood silent and still and anonymous. Then, she thought she saw six Human Souls surrounding the Prince, each a different color, each laying some kind of Judgement on the Prince.

Asriel looked up at Frisk, reached out his arm, too weak to crawl and called out, “Frisk! Help me….! I don’t want to…be alone anymore!”

“Asriel!” She screamed running to him in between Alphys/Human with a Hunting Knife/Green Soul of Kindness and Undyne/Human with a Matchlock Muzzloader/Yellow Soul of Justice. She dove on her knees and clutched the crying Asriel close to her chest, ignoring the myriad of voices that now assailed her ears. 

“Azzy…I’m here…”

“Frisk…” said Asriel, coughing up grey, lifeless goop… “You left me…”

“No, no I didn’t!”

“You left me….You let me die….” He droned on lifelessly.

Suddenly, Asriel spasmed and Frisk screamed. A green vine with red thorns was ripped through his mouth and he was yanked away from Frisk’s arms as laughter shook the room.   
Six other vines skewered the Six Watchers and they sailed up, limp, their limbs ragdolled and still saying their phrases without relief.

Suddenly the dream went towards what others would call a fever-induced dream but for Frisk, it was worse….It became a memory…

The six skewered beings became six encased Souls and the Vines had an end point…

Thorny arms…

Wheezing, smoking machinery…

Drooling doubled jawed mouth with pegged teeth…

Four eyes, wide open in bloodlust and insanity….

A television screen with a bloodshot eyed verion of Flowey….

“YOUREALLYAREANIDIOT!!!!”

Before she could react, a multitude of vines and thorns shot out and she felt her insides rip into shreds and she saw that she was being dragged to the gaping mouth and the last thing she saw was the TV changing into the angular face of Asriel the God of Hyperdeath laughing…

\

Frisk held herself, shaking and sweating from her nightmare, her t-shirt and shorts sticking to her. 

Tears ran down her eyes as she began to sob.

Unseen by her was the unwelcome intruder standing by her bed, its talons over her head, it whispered things into the girl’s mind, fueled by hate and-

Suddenly the door creaked open and a figure shadowed the door.

The invisible thing growled a mute growl and mouthed more things into Frisk’s mind.

“Frisk…?” A soft kind voice whispered.

Frisk looked into the door and nearly screamed.

The Absolute God of Hyperdeath had followed her home! His horns took up nearly all the door and he held dual flat-bladed swords in his hand, his eyes mirroring the Void and his voice deep and echoing.

“What is happening in here?” He challenged her to dare speak.

She could only cry and she couldn’t even call for help.

A thought ran into her mind that she hadn’t thought for years…

Reset.

\

“RESET! DO IT NOW, CHILD!” The Dark Entity silently screamed at Frisk.

“DO IT BEFORE HE TAKES YOUR SOUL!!”

\

“Frisk…are you okay??”

Asriel, seeing tears go down Frisk’s cheeks, took a hesitant step into the room and the Shadow, unseen and unheard by all hissed but began to panic, losing its influence over Frisk.

\

Frisk vision of the God of Hyperdeath wavered and his voice began to shrink into a sweeter, more familiar voice…

\

The Spirit, desperately trying to gain control of the situation, foolishly tried to remind Frisk of Omega Flowey and tried to remind her that she been killed countless times and-!

It jumped back. Asriel had an actual sword on his hand. Nobody saw where it came from. 

\

Frisk couldn’t quite comprehend what was going on, but she saw Asriel wave one of his Chaos Sabers just a foot above where she lay and she felt something snap.

\

The Spirit screamed a silent siren of pain and flew through the wall, trailing spiritual residue and wailing its failure and defeat to any Entities in the area that could hear him. 

It sailed over a small house that was bathed in light. Not physical light. A spiritual light that emanated from within. It screamed for no reason other than to make itself known. 

Maybe it could bother some more people on the other side of town before it-!

Its wail was cut short when something white and long shot towards it and it careened to Earth, crashing on the ground, fading quickly.

The last thing it saw was a short broad figure lazily walk back inside and mutter to itself, “welp, at least that shot ‘rose MY spirits’ hehe”…

\

Frisk lay in her bed, stiff and afraid of Asriel’s Blade. He dismissed it quickly however and, sitting next to Frisk on her bed, he wiped away her tears and she smiled as the nightmare faded from memory forever.

Asriel had woken up suddenly and felt his Soul tell him that Frisk was in danger and when he had stepped into the room, he felt an Evil presence and, remembering Sans’ Commission, he drew his Blade and, acting on his Soul’s discernment, swiped an arc over Frisk, harmless to her but hopefully driving away any Evil thing from her. 

It had worked, apparently, because he felt his Soul lift considerably and Frisk also relaxed and she smiled, leaning her face into Asriel’s chest sighing contentedly.

“Thank you…” she whispered.

Asriel hugged her and said, “Ha…sure thing Frisk…”


	20. Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a Pit in the edge of existence, a plot is being laid for the Skeleton of Ebbot.

Try to picture, if you will, what Reality is.

Now, what did you come up with?

Did you say that Reality is a place of physical matter where things can be described as real by what we can sense with our 5 senses?

Did you say that Reality is just an illusion that we must transcend?

Or did you, instead of answering the question, proceed to tell yourself why Reality exists? 

Did you go ahead and vent to nobody in particular about how Reality is nothing but pain and how nothing you do makes a difference?

Did you say…

Imagine now, a place where all worlds, all timelines and all dimensions intersect. A place outside of Time, where indeed Time has nearly no meaning. No singular event happens there because, for something to have happened, something that wasn’t that event would have had to happen before it. Everything happens there…every time someone goes in there, anyone who has gone in there is in there, too. Some for the first time. Some returning. Most as their one and final time after they have died. 

That’s why, if you go, if you ever go there after, the “first time” you and the “returning” you are in there at the same time.

However, this place is so mindnumbingly enourmous, the probability of meeting another version of you, or even of anyone else is very slim, unless you are called and you have an appointment with the residents…

This place is known by many names, but for the sake of the story, we will simply call it The Beyond.

And people do have appointments there. Of the many people that have…or will…or actually are in there right now, many are those who are shown somethings while they are still alive. These things, many times, are pictures of what would be called “the future” outside of the Beyond, or rather, within the Beyond, as every reality and every place are just little pockets of Physical Matter, Time and Division. 

Most portals, wormholes, whatever you wish to call them, exist in a dimly lit hall in pale white light. The light is not blinding, neither is it barely existent. It simply is Light. And many “Mirrors” exist here.

Many people are shown things here, some are given Special Instructions to help preserve their individual timelines. 

Most of the Residents of the Beyond are there to help. They admonish, warn, protect and watch over the inhabitants of all the timelines as their Lord has commanded them. 

They are the Light Entities, occasionally accompanied by the Souls of those who have passed away.

However, not all beings in the Beyond are kind.

All Entities claim the Beyond as Home.

In one tiny little pocket of the Beyond (tiny by Beyond standards but maybe, if it were somehow measured by Physical Standards, it would be the size of a small planet…) lies a place where the twilight of the Hall of Mirrors and Portals (that’s just what we will call it now, that isn’t its real name) cannot penetrate. Outside of this Place is dead silence. No birds, no running water, no wind in the trees, no sounds of conversation, no strange sci-fi warbles or whirs that people think echo in these places for some reason. It’s only silence. A wall of   
Silence has been placed around this area for a reason, because, if you somehow pass this Spiritual Barrier, you will have almost wished you had never been able to hear. The   
Screams that ring out from within are terrible to hear….

Many people think of Hell as a red pit with spurts of fire here and there while people either burn in pits or are impaled on thin black pillars that gleam either with blood or some other sickly substance. And, although that is not all what Hell is, there is some of that there. Most of it however was described well by a British prophet. It is simply a mass of nightmarish oneness. Countless souls writhe in pain and damnation above you, around you, under you, indistinguishable in their torment. 

It is one Law in the Beyond that those who go to the Pit, as it is called there, must start by making their way through this mass of Pain. This means that any Dark Entity who “dies” or simply, is defeated by magic or decree in “reality” is immediately teleported into this bubbling mass of screams and melted bodies and the pain is unbearable. This is why all evil spirits dread being thrown into the Pit. Whether this was an unforeseen consequence of that Law being placed or whether that Law was put in place to intentionally punish the Dark Entities once they were caught (for a Dark Entity being defeated in the Physical World and being sent to Hell is the Beyond equivalent of a criminal being arrested and sent to prison.), we don’t know. Personally, I favor the latter.

However, after a while, most Dark Entities can force their way through, especially if a mightier one calls upon them to accomplish some kind of task. It is a kind of bare spot that mighty Principalities discuss their plans for the Physical World. Two were meeting now.

Now, it should be said that Dark Entities are only invisible on the Physical World. It isn’t that turn themselves invisible intentionally. Due to the different fabric of Reality they belong to, they can’t be seen by Physical Eyes, not unless a great power has broken down barriers between the Physical or someone is shown them by an Entity or unless you yourself are a Resident of the Beyond and you can see them just as well as you can see everything else...Not that you’d actually want to see a Dark Entity. They aren’t known for their good looks… 

One was the Imp that had tried to establish a Hellish outpost on the City of Ebbot, foolishly without any backup.

The other was much larger and was craning its neck up into the Wall of Pain and Suffering and seemed like it was calling for something. Out of the Wall shot out a small little shadow that fell with a splat onto the ground. It lay there gathering itself until its shape finally condensed into a recognizable form.

It was the Shade that had tried to torment Frisk into Reseting the timeline. It was fortunate. It had spent very little time in the Wall. It was needed.

“Stop your groveling, snake, and report.” Said the taller figure, impatient.

The Shade tried getting up, but when it took too long, the Other grabbed the Shade by the neck and brought it to its feet. The Imp rubbed its neck, remembering how the Skeleton had handled him much the same way. 

The Shade gasped and said finally, “Failure…Asriel Dreemurr came…”

“And he defeated you?” The Other’s voice ran red with fury.

“He-he wounded me, yes…but…it was the Skeleton…that finally banished me…”

The Shade was thrown down in disgust.

“Twelve times…Twelve times we’ve moved on Ebbot and its resources but each time…stopped by that insufferable Monster!” 

The Imp sat, nervously not daring to speak while the Shade slithered away from the Other, snarling. 

“We must send more in and this time…we go straight for that pathetic-!”

“M-master...we’ve tried that before. Three times…each assault repelled by him…It would be a failed attempt! Some of those in the raid are still in the Wall, I think…”

The Other sighed and was about to speak when a voice whispered behind him.  
  
"He is correct..."

The dark mist that had been forming around the three Entities began to gather in one place into a tall pile of goo. A warbled voice came from the pile.

"It's become very clear now..."

The pillar began to develop patterns until arms began to grow out from the center and, on top, a white face appeared, still only half formed but the Voice much louder.

"Leave Sans to me!"  



	21. His Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans reflects on his past and Ebbot is suddenly attacked.

“BROTHER!” Papyrus called in the small apartment.

“OUR FATHER REQUESTS THAT YOU MEET HIM IN THE ROYAL LABORATORY!”

Sans chuckled to himself and walked down the stairs, carrying the bag that he had spent all night packing and worrying over. He knew that the Big Day was Today. He knew more than his young brother did, in fact. Little Papyrus was still too young to do this and the exact nature of Sans’ appointment with Wingdings Gaster was unknown to the small skeleton.

Sans patted his brother on the head and smiled widely as he made his long walk to the Laboratory, the machinery of Hotland rumbling and the Core sighing in the distance.

On the way to the Laboratory, Sans wondered to himself what awaited there for him. Gaster had said that today, Sans would “step into his anointing”. Now, what that meant, Sans was not quite sure. What he was sure, however, was that today he would venture into the Beyond for the first time. 

The thought filled him with excitement. He had heard his father talk about the Beyond and the Bright Ones there that talked to him. It was the Bright Ones that had directed the Monsters’ early days of migration into Home and New Home, after a massive disaster had befallen the Humans on the Surface. 

And today, Sans would meet them! Something within his Soul was trembling, whether through fear or excitement, Sans couldn’t be sure.

Gaster had left early while the two were still asleep and had called Papyrus to request that he send Sans on his way.

Now Sans was walking into the Royal Laboratory and, looking up, he saw his father standing in the doorway leading to the True Lab. He was wearing a strange white robe and had a look of pride on his face. 

“Son,” he said. “Today’s the First Day of the rest of your life.”

Sans smiled nervously. “Yeah, awesome…”

Gaster smiled. “So tense…”

Gaster took Sans by the hand and led him down into the True Lab. 

In the Lab, Sans felt his Soul grow heavy with each step they took until he saw in front of him, a Portal; a Door into the Beyond was already open. 

“We are expected,” said Gaster, answering Sans’ mental question.

“Step through, Son.”

Sans’ bones rattled as he began to hesitantly walk to the Portal.

He hesitated in front of the portal as his father observed his actions.

Taking a deep breath, Sans walked through…

Instantly, Sans found himself in a dimly lit hall filled with other portals. His soul was filled with…something. He had a bizarre feeling of-.

“Welcome Home, Sans.” Gaster said behind him. 

Sans looked at his Father who seemed to glow with a strange white light and his eyes glowed with white fire. 

“Dad? What do you mean-home?”

Gaster led Sans further down the Hall to where the Light seemed to originate and he explained.

“Every being that has a Soul belongs here, in the Beyond and it is here that all Souls journey to once their bodies have been destroyed or rendered useless. This is the Afterlife, Sans: the destination of all Souls: the True Home of any sentient being.”

“Are we dead??” Sans asked in a panic.

Gaster chuckled. “No, Son. Some are permitted to travel a little ways into the Beyond while still alive and in the body.”

“Oh...” said Sans, following his father nervously.

It wasn’t long until Sans realized that the light ahead of them was not just One massive Light. There were several smaller lights in it and they were heading towards Sans and Gaster.

They were only recognizable as pillars of light, blazing but undistinguishable. That is, until Gaster held Sans in front of him and directed him to look with his Soul, rather than his eyes. Sans was not sure what he meant, but he tried anyway. He closed his eyes and felt his Soul stir within him. He suddenly felt a massive jolt and he opened his eyes again, his pupils gone and his left eye aglow with magic overflowing from within. He realized it wasn’t Gaster or even himself doing this. His Soul had been called. The Light Beings were awakening it.

Speaking of them, Sans realized that when he used his Soul to look, rather than his physical eyes, he could see the Beings clearly and also hear them without any misunderstanding.

Sans could see that what he had misunderstood to be simple pillars of white light were actually Three Mighty Entities with rainbows of color surrounding them, some colors impossible to describe.

Sans knew that from here on, his life would never be the same.

\

“SANS!” 

Sans’ skull jerked up. What time was it? What timeline? What would the Human do this time?

He shook his head and looked around, noticing the Sun setting the forested hills aglow with the clean, piercing light of Dawn. If he was a Human, he probably would have a headache from the light, but he was a Monster and one that was used to Blinding Light.

As his mind cleared, he remembered where and when he was and his mind eased. He had been asleep and dreaming about his Past again. 

Not another timeline like he had before, simply his Past. The Past of the Sans that he was. His Past was no one else’s, or maybe it was the same for all the Sanses? Or maybe just some of them?

He had never met another Sans before and, for the most part, he didn’t really want to. Keeping management of one timeline was hard enough without having to worry about more multiples. He already had to deal with multiple Asriel Dreemurrs and even now was still having some difficulty in distinguishing between the Asriel-that-was-once-Flowey and Ray’s Asriel. He knew he ought to though and knew that, unlike this timeline’s Asriel, who was unpredictable and had been absent for a long time, the Alternate Asriel was predictably kind as well as stronger and more assertive than the Asriel that had been beguiled by Chara. 

“welp, makes no difference to Frisk, anyway”

It was true. From what Sans could tell, Frisk had, for better or worse, decided to pursue Asriel Dreemurr; at first, Sans figured it was only Frisk’s good nature trying to Save Asriel from his Fate. As time went on, however, and everyone began establishing themselves on the Surface, he saw that Frisk was still lonely and he figured that she missed having him as a friend. Once Ray and Asriel had turned up, Sans knew it would only be a matter of time until Asriel was taken in by the Dreemurrs and Frisk would have him as a step-sibling, then everything would be fine. But…Sans suspected that there was more than just love for adopted souls going on. During his Chat with the Two Wanderers, his suspicions were confirmed. He had played off his pointing out of Asriel’s and Frisk’s closeness as simply that Asriel had claimed Protection of Frisk, which meant he was one of her Guardians. This was normal and was for the best and helped ease Sans’s worries about Frisk being a target for Dark Entities. However, Asriel’s nervousness had told Sans that there much more to it than that. 

There had not been a Monster-Human relationship in a very long time and Sans wondered if there had, in fact, ever even been one…

He wondered if it could even be possible…

He felt guilty in a way. He hadn’t been there for Frisk when she was lonely and before Asriel and Ray had shown up. He had been consumed by loss as well and he had been busy.

He could still remember the first sighting he had had of a Dark Entity. It was just the Second Day they had been on the Surface.

Dark Entities had been almost nonexistent Underground, so Sans had almost reached the conclusion that Dark Entities were rare occurrences and that they would not be much of an issue if they ever made it to the Surface. 

He was wrong.

He remembered seeing that first Band of Dark Entities. Small ones, jabbering and hissing at each other in broad daylight. The sight had disturbed Sans greatly. He wondered if they were bold because of large numbers but, looking around and seeing/sensing no other Entities, hostile or otherwise, he decided it was due to the lack of Monsters and the current absence of Light Entities that made these creatures so bold and heedless. 

Nobody was around, so Sans summoned a Blaster and wiped out the entire Pack with a single blast.

From then on, the Millenia-long War between Evil and Good escalated; Monsters had returned to the Surface. The Ancient Days had returned.

Sans, however, made a mistake. He kept the existence of the Dark Entities a secret. Every Monster used to know the existence of Entities and was prepared to fight them and defend Humanity, no matter how undeserving the Humans would be (it was this Knowledge that made the Dreemurrs so eager to adopt both Ray and Chara into their home). But Something had happened that erased the Knowledge of the Monsters’ True Purpose from memory.

After Chara and Asriel had died on that Horrible Night and after the Queen left the King when he declared War, Gaster took it upon himself to find a way to prevent Chara from ever falling down into the Underground…

The result was disastrous.

Gaster had vanished, broken into pieces throughout the Timeline and Sans never saw him again.

To make matters worse, the new Royal Scientist had injected a flower with Determination, a raw, dangerous form of Human Soul Energy.

Sans never quite understood what happened next. All he knew was to never trust the Flower and to kill it on sight. And then the Resets came, making Time jump left and right, stop and start, re-do, end….

Eventually the worst had happened.

All knowledge of Gaster, Entities and the Beyond were wiped from the memories of every individual except Sans and the Flower. 

But to the Flower, the knowledge of The Beyond was only a shadow in the back of its mind; an irrelevant fairy tale he believed in a previous life, one that, in his foolishness, he had clung to and tried to protect and escort a human Soul to the Surface. It was a stupid fairy tale that turned out to be a lie; a lie that got him killed. It was clear to him now. In this world, it was Kill or Be Killed.

And so, Sans and Flowey battled, Reset after Reset. One trying desperately to cling to the Ancient Truth, the other wanting nothing but to prove himself right and to fill in the void in his empty vessel.

This went on for years…

Sans was lucky he never remembered what happened during the other resets, but it was hard to fight an Enemy you couldn’t remember.

He was pondering this while he kept watch in Snowdin Forest one day. His official job description was “Sentry on the Lookout for Humans”, but there was a different reason he mostly haunted the icy woods. It was where the Flower would show up first, as far as he could tell. Sans didn’t really care about capturing Humans. The Monster War on Humans was foolish and wouldn’t and couldn’t last, Sans knew. The Real War, the War against Dark Entities, that was his focus. 

He wondered where Gaster was, how he wouldn’t be so alone if his father had not attempted such a dangerous experiment. He would have never vanished and, once Papyrus had grown older, he would have taken him into the Beyond as well and Papyrus would also be able to remember his True Mission. But sadly, WingDings had vanished before he could and Papyrus was unable to step into his Calling as a Gaster. He was obsessed now with claiming a position in the Royal Guard. Sans remembered how heart-broken he was to hear that his brother couldn’t see Higher than that. He remembered how he had cried himself to sleep that night, furious at life’s cruelty. But he had eventually accepted his lot. He and Papyrus both applied to act as Sentries for Snowdin and Sans applied for other positions as well, so that he could keep an eye on the Flower’s whereabouts. 

It was during one of his patrols in Snowdin Forest that he finally found the Door to the Ruins. 

He stared at it for a while and, bored, knocked on the door, like he did nearly every day. 

“Knock, knock.” He said to himself.

“Who’s there?” a woman’s voice said behind the door.

Sans raised his nonexistent eyebrows in surprise but smiled and replied. 

“dishes”

“Dishes who?” said the Voice.

“hehe…’dishes’ a very bad joke”

\

Sans walked in the Park, looking to the rest of the world like he was wandering aimlessly. But he was patrolling again. He kept his eyes open, both physically and spiritually, for any signs of any Hellish presence.

Everything was quiet on the front however and Sans was happy to see several Light Entities were keeping watch over the area, guarding it from any attackers. 

No humans or monsters could see them, but he knew that they could sense their presence.

The presence of a light Entity can do many things to a Human. Sometimes, it can be a calming, reassuring tranquility that eases your Soul, other times it can be a driving force that brings you to action and fills you with…well, Determination, actually. And other times, it’s a general feeling of contentment and security. 

Sans grinned as he continued to walk on.

The Light Entities kept watch over the City of Ebbot until a ruckus echoed out in the City. 

“Hey! What are you doing? Leave him alone!”

Concerned, the Light Entities soared to where the noise was coming from, wondering what was afoot.

\ 

Meanwhile, on the edge of town, Frisk and Asriel walked the streets of their neighborhood, talking about the dreams that Frisk had been having.

“Thanks again for being there for me, Az. I don’t know what would have happened if…”

Asriel hugged Frisk. “Hey, it’s ok…You know I’m here for you.”

“Asriel!” The two could hear Toriel’s voice call out from their backyard.

“Coming!” Asriel said. “Sorry Frisk, I’ll be right back, ok?”

“Okay…” Frisk said, sorry to see him go, even only for a moment.

\

In the main streets of Ebbot, the two Light Entities hovered over the crowd of Humans and Monsters. A Human had been making fun of a Monster, Monster Kid in fact, about his lack of arms. He was dressed in all black, regardless of the heat of Summer. He seemed only to be in his late 20’s. 

He had pushed down Monster Kid onto the hot sidewalk, taunting him to get up.

The person who had called out was the Human who had tackled the Bully to the ground and stood over him, enraged.

It was Ray. 

“I think you’ve overstayed your welcome here, boy.” He said, his voice a dark growl.

The Bully scoffed and said, “Kid, do I look like just a boy to you? I’m older than you, most likely.”

Ray seethed above him. “It doesn’t matter what number shows up on your driver’s license, you’re acting like a damn child!” 

\

Sans felt a check in his Soul. Something wasn’t right.

\

Frisk sat on the edge of the curb, waiting for Asriel to come back. She didn’t dare interrupt whatever private conversation he was having with Goat Mom. She sat patiently. 

She noticed that there was a small, old looking car that was idling just down the road from her. She noticed that there were several people in there, but she couldn’t make out their faces…

Something felt very creepy about that car.

\ 

Sans was starting to feel anxiety begin to form in his Soul and was about to teleport to where he thought the trouble was when he heard a voice that shocked him deeply.

“Son…”

Sans turned to the voice and his bones rattled.

In front of him stood his father, W.D. Gaster.

“Dad?”

\

“Get up!” 

Ray pulled the dude up on his feet and faced him towards Monster Kid, who by now had been helped up by several monsters.

“Apologize to him.”

The guy laughed. “Uh, what?”

Ray hit him in the back of his head, earning a cuss and whimper from the Bully.

“You heard me, I said apologize!”

The Bully looked at Ray and said, “Make me, bitch!”

\

Frisk scrolled through her phone at her contacts and texted Undyne. 

*Hey, what’s up?*

She looked up and saw that there was a guy next to the car down the road. He was talking to the driver.

Her phone buzzed.

*Not much! How are you doing? Heard you had a hard time sleeping last night?*

Frisk typed out a message.

*It’s no biggie. Asriel helped me sleep lol thanks for asking tho!*

Buzz…

*Ohhhh, I getcha ;D   
…ugh these emojis Alphys has me doing are weird!*

Frisk snickered and was about to reply by saying that he wasn’t helping her THAT way when she heard a voice call her from across the street.

“Hey! Are your parents home?”

Frisk looked up. “What?”

The guy put his hands up to his mouth and yelled.

“Are your parents hoooome?”

Frisk looked at the guy in confusion but decided to be honest. 

“Yeah my mom and brother are in the backyard!”

The guy looked at the driver and raised his eyebrows.

The driver smiled and suddenly two men dressed all in black leaped out of the car and ran towards Frisk!

\

Asriel couldn’t move. He felt something hold him in place. All he could see was a ring of darkness wrapped around him as a figure beyond the dark wall held his hands up. He was saying something in a language that Asriel couldn’t understand and the darkness seemed to be spewing out of his mouth. 

Another figure stood next to him, holding a curved sword of some kind. It gleamed painfully bright in the sunlight.

\

Ray grabbed the boy’s hair and looked him right in the eyes. 

“What…did you just call me?” His eyes looked darkly on the boy and the Bully looked around and saw that Humans and Monsters were both looking at him disapprovingly and he realized he didn’t have any backup. He made a mistake. He looked at the warehouse down the street to where another man in black stood, pleading for help silently. 

The man quickly looked away and avoided eye contact but Ray had seen the exchange. He looked at the Warehouse and saw the Man hurry into there and slam a door shut.

\

Frisk got up and sprinted away calling for Asriel’s name.

\

Undyne was walking through the City. She and Papyrus had been buying some new clothes for the summer activities they were planning on doing with their students at Toriel’s school. 

They noticed the tightly knit group of Monsters and Humans and, worried, they hurried over to see what the problem was.

A third Light Entity joined their two Allies. They had succeeded in escorting Papyrus and Undyne to the scene.

\

“Dad…what are doing here? Where-where have you been??”

“I was lost, Son. But now I have returned.”

“Oh God…It’s so good to see you.”

“The same goes for me as well, Sans. I have been watching you, Son. I see you have been working hard…”

Sans felt that a bit odd hearing that come from his Father but he shrugged it off.

Gaster smile in a self-deprecating fashion. 

“I really should have made my way to you a long time ago…I am sorry. I got…sidetracked in the Beyond.”

“So you WERE in the Beyond…hehe…I tried looking for you a few times.”

“Sans, you couldn’t have been able to find me…”

“Yeah the Beyond is huge…”

“Yes, but you were looking in the wrong place.”

“I looked for you everywhere in the Halls, in different times, different places…Wait, were you in the Court-?“

Gaster raised up a hand.

“That is not important. What is important is that I am here…”

\

Undyne pushed her way through the crowd to find Ray holding a sullen young man by the hair.

“Ray! What’s this all about?”

Ray looked up, a distracted look on his face.

“Undyne! This guy just pushed down Monster Kid and he won’t apologize!”

Papyrus walked up as well and overheard this.

“NOW WHY WOULD HE DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT??”

“I don’t know…” Ray looked at the Warehouse and thought he saw someone run past a window, doing a bad job of staying hidden.

Desperate, he put the skulking Bully in front of the two Monsters and said, “Hey, could you guys try talking to him? I need to look into something.”

“OF COURSE, RAY THE HUMAN! WE WILL CORRECT THIS HUMAN!”

“Yeah.” said Undyne, cracking her knuckles. “We’ll straighten him out!”

\

Frisk ran up to the house and screamed. 

“MOM! ASRIEL! HELP!!”

The men ran up behind her panting and trying to grab her, but she was too fast.

Of course, she was able to evade them. One doesn’t manage to bring up all the Monsters to the Surface by being slow! Her experience dodging magic attacks made it easy to dodge the pursuing men.

But Frisk was still horrified.

The Monsters had wanted just to block or capture her or, at the worst, kill her. 

These men wanted something else. Something that makes death seem preferable in comparison.

Also, she couldn’t run forever…and they had a car.

\

Asriel heard Frisk scream. The sound seemed an infinite distance away but he heard it. Frisk calling for help. 

The armed man in front of him swung his sword, intending to slice Asriel as he stood paralyzed.

Everything seemed to slow down.

\

Ray pushed through the crowd, running to the Warehouse.

Once he reached it, it came across his mind that he didn’t have his gun, nor his sword. Only his shield.

‘It doesn’t matter! I need to see!’

Throwing caution to the wind, Ray used his magic to grab a large piece of concrete and threw it towards a massive window…

\

Sans chuckled nervously. 

“uhh, it kinda DOES matter where you’ve been…”

Sans didn’t like how vague WingDings was being.

“Sans…I really am sorry. But I must ask you to do something you may find difficult.”

Sans’ expression hardened.

“What is it?”

“I’m going to have to ask you to stand down…”

\

Right before the sword landed on Asriel, a massive light shot out underneath the Three Figures. 

The Two humans fell to the ground, the darkness that had been spewing out of the Sorcerer’s mouth had dissipated and the Light had made the Sorcerer mute. 

Looking up, the two Humans had just enough time to see that the young, Goat-like monster in jeans and a striped shirt they had tried to capture had transformed into a being of terrible power.

His horns were long and sharp. Fangs lined his mouth. Black scars ran along his face and his eyes were dark and mirrored some alternate dimension. He was also wearing purple robes with a Delta Rune on his chest. He also carried an otherworldly flat sword in each hand and levitated above the ground.

Asriel looked at the two humans and without a word, slashed his Sabers against both of them, wounding them severely, but not killing them. 

Out of commission, the two Humans fell back on the grass and groaned in pain.

\

Ray leaped through the shattered window, his Shield activated. Looking up, he saw two figures in the empty room, one with a radio in his hand, the other armed with an assault rifle, an AN-94 to be exact. 

The Radio Guy sprinted into the next room screaming something like, “Screw it! Start it now!”

At this call, two more men ran into the room armed with submachine guns when they stopped short, their boots skidding on the dusty concrete.

They had just run into the room when they saw something leap onto the Watchman and deliver a brutal haymaker to the man’s jaw before he had a chance to react.

The attacker was a young man, probably just into his 20’s, if that. He had a blue ring of energy glowing around his arm and, after finishing up with the Watchman, sprinted towards the newcomers with a roar of savagery.

\

“’Stand down?’ What’s that supposed to mean?”

Gaster sighed. “Son, you’ve been working hard and through many trials you have succeeded in doing the right thing. You fought, reset after bloody reset, against that Would-be Flower Prince. Due to your diligence, you succeeded. The Human, Frisk, has freed all Monsterkind.”

“I don’t understand…What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you do not need to fight anymore. Your duty is fulfilled. You can finally…chillax, if I recall the way you referred it as.”

“Dad,” said Sans shaking his head. “You don’t get it. Dark Entities are moving all over the place! They have plans for Frisk and for me and for anyone else that stands in their way-!”

“Sans…”

“Also, you never answered my question. Where. Have. You. Been?”

Sans could see Darkness wrapped around Gaster, residue that could only have come from…

Gaster’s voice shifted into impatience. 

“I do wish you would stop changing the subject!”

Sans’s eyes went dark and magic flickered in his eye.

“I asked a simple question...” he said.

Gaster’s voice narrowed into a hiss.

“Ask yourself if the answer is worth the battle getting…”

Sans summoned several bones and Blasters. His question had been answered.

“Think about this Sans...You’re siding with Those that left us to die in the Underground…Those that never came for me when I died. I have only done what is Right and to what end? I was alone in the Beyond. An Outcast! The only Refuge I found was with those we had called the Enemy.”

Sans’s Eye was ablaze with Magic and he said nothing.

\

Frisk was beginning to develop a stitch in her side from shortness of breath and she began to lose speed and momentum. 

She tripped on the curb as she ran along the street and someone was on top of her immediately. 

She felt her arms held together behind her and she was being lifted up/dragged to the idling car, its back door open, ready to receive her. She tried to scream but her mouth had been covered by a strong hand.

Suddenly a massive roar slammed the ears of all in the street. The men looked up and behold! Asriel Dreemurr sailed in the sky toward them, his eyes a white fire and fire trailed behind him.

“RELEASE HER!” A powerful voice rang out and rumbled the street.

The men foolishly turned to run into what they thought was the safety of their car.

A screech rang out followed by a white-hot projectile that slammed into the vehicle, crushing it, leaving the Driver wounded and trapped inside, but alive.

The Men screamed in fear and dropped Frisk, running down the street, desperate to escape.

\

Ray charged the armed men who were only able to get off a few inaccurate shots before Ray leaped and delivered another devastating haymaker to the man, resulting in a disturbing pop as the man’s jaw dislocated. Then, picking up his gun, Ray fired a burst of bullets at the other man’s waist, making him collapse and scream in pain as blood seeped out.

Once the men were down, Ray leaped over them into the next room and, seeing a man run in armed with another gun, Ray opened fire on him.

The man fell to the floor clutching his side, his legs spasming next to him. 

Ray leaped over him and ran into the next room.

\

“Asriel!!”

Frisk held her arms up as Asriel lowered and diminished into his calm form. He landed in front of Frisk and held her close, both trembling.

“Frisk, are you ok??” Asriel said, clutching her close to him.

“Y-yes,” she gasped, clinging to him tightly.

“Frisk, we need to find mom and dad. Now! Come on!” he said, taking her by the hand, trying to lead her away.

“Wait, Asriel what’s happening!?” Frisk dug her feet in, refusing to move just yet.

“I can’t explain right now!” he said, trying to lead her away still. “We need to move NOW!”

“Asriel! Talk to me! What’s ha-!?”

Suddenly Frisk saw something dark leap onto Asriel, knocking him over. She couldn’t make out what it was, other than some blurred fangs and huge leering eyes.

She tried to kick the thing off him, but her foot sailed right through it, like it was a gas. She overcompensated and was thrown down by another one of the Creatures. 

She was pushed up against the road, and all she could see was a multitude of the Creatures heading right for the two Captives. Some were running, some floating in the air, some looked like they were carrying misty ropes, all of them were screaming. 

\

Ray ran into the next room and ran right into a wall of gun barrels. At least 20 men, some old, most young and his age, all of them armed. Shotguns, handguns, assault rifles and machine guns all pointed toward him with a rain of clicks of chambers being loaded. The entire room was full of automatic weapons, grenades, riot shields and long, wicked looking knifes. Ray wasn’t the most educated person about the ways things went on the surface, but he could recognize that these kids were gearing up for some kind of revolution or something like that. Actually, what they were planning was much worse: A Massacre.

Ray pulled the trigger on his gun. One shot rang out and hit the wall, injuring nobody. The rest was just clicks.

Out of Ammo.

One crazed looking teenager made a strange kind of screeching laugh and grabbed one of the grenades, pulling the pin and tossing it to Ray.

Ray couldn’t see the ensemble of Dark Entities in the room, each with their tendrils grasped on or in the hapless anarchists forcing them to stand in complacency and/or despair as the live grenade rolled to the floor at Ray’s feet, a quiet ticking ringing out in the room.

\

Gaster looked at amusement at the Blasters surrounding Sans, ignoring their growls as they stared him down with their sapphire eyes. 

“Sans, do you really think that you are a match for me?” Gaster’s eyes began to glow a deep red color as he began to expand, a strange language issuing out of his mouth.

Sans’s expression softened only for a moment and he whispered, “I’m sorry, Dad…”

He clenched his fist and the Blasters erupted in a blast of bright blue light, sailing towards Gaster.

He stood there with a cocksure smile on his face, expecting no pain.

The result was not what he expected.

The Blast, much to his shock and pain, actually wounded him seriously and threw him against the floor. 

Gasping, Gaster strained to get up.

“I-Imposs….Impossible! I’ve-ahhh!-only done what was right…all I’ve done…for the greater good!”

Sans looked at his fallen father with an expression of pity and disappointment and anger.

“It doesn’t matter how justified you think you are; you are not the one who determines what you do is right or wrong. Karmatic Retribution-it isn’t partial.”

“It’s…fickle!” Gaster gasped. “It was this kind of turncoat atrocity...*gasp*…that drove me away…”

\

Tick! Tick! Tick!

Ray, acting quickly, grabbed the grenade with his magic and threw it out the window, sailing into the air.

\

“DO YOU SEE NOW WHY IT IS WRONG TO HURT MONSTER KID?”

The Bully was trying hard to not lose his patience, but he couldn’t help feeling like he was being presented something. Being presented a chance to maybe get away from the web of plots that he had found himself in…

A window shattering woke him up from his thoughts and looking up, he, Papyrus, Undyne and all the gathered beings saw a small black object sail in the air.

“Whoa…” Monster Kid uttered, staring at the small object.

Suddenly the object detonated and a flash and a blast of shrapnel shot out, followed quickly by a loud *BOOM*

The crowd gasped and screamed, ducking away and edging away from the explosion.

A stampede would have taken place if Undyne and Papyrus weren’t there. The two monsters were able to evacuate the crowd using their loud voices and magic to point out the best evac routes.

The two tried to keep a look out for the human bully that had started all the trouble, but he had vanished and was nowhere to be seen.

\

Frisk felt a massive weight in her soul as the spiritual oppression weighed down on her. The dark ropes of the Dark Entities coiled around her, paralyzing her and filling her mind with dark things and the world grew dark around her, filling her with dread and horror.

“ENOUGH!!” she suddenly heard a mighty voice shout out.

She saw a bright light and saw Asriel clutching a dark mist in his hand. He raised it above his head and threw it far, far away. 

He then raised his arms and above him a massive skull like structure with a goat’s horns roared above him.

Frisk thought she could hear screams of terror echo around her.

What she couldn’t quite see was that the street was full of Dark Entities, mostly small Imps and Shades.

They looked at dread at the Hyper Goner that sailed over Asriel’s head, its roar shaking them to their nuclei. They knew what awaited them if they stayed in the immediate vicinity.

Rumors spread among the Legions of Death of the horrors that Monsters could subject them to when they were exposed. One such rumor was the Hyper Goner: a creature from the Beyond, one of many, that had one sole purpose: Serve their Monster faithfully and bring punishment to the escapees of the Pit. The Hyper Goner is capable of dragging in any Dark Entity to it by harnessing the massive gravitational pull that only Black Holes and the gravity of the Great Worlds can best. In layman’s terms, the Hyper Goner’s original function is to suck any evil spirits into the Wall of Suffering in Hell where they belonged. The legend of the Caprine Skull that sucked its victims into Hell even leaked out into the lore of the humans until its history was eventually perverted through word of mouth and earthly motives into the flawed notion that goats were the gatekeepers of the underworld. Thus, many caprines were sacrificed and idolized, the true memory gone, replaced by superstition and witchcraft.

But here was the Original Source of the legends. The Hyper Goner in the hands of the Prince of Monsters?! The very thought made the Entities quiver in fear.

The Hyper Goner opened its maw and the Entities began to be drawn in, desperately trying to claw onto the street and curb to save themselves. But the pull was too strong. The Spirits screamed in fear, begging for Mercy by the God of Hyperdeath.

But he refused.

The spirits one by one were drawn into the jaws of the Hyper Goner, the screams of Hell overtaking them.

But not every being was drawn in.

Asriel Dreemurr had a limp figure in his arms and cradled it to his chest. It was Frisk. She had passed out in fear of both the Spirits and the Hyper Goner.

Asriel Dreemurr spoke gently to her. “It’s ok, Frisk. Let me take you somewhere more wholesome…”

He sailed away, carrying Frisk away while the Hyper Goner continued to capture every last Dark Entity. 

Finally, the last one was banished and the Hyper Goner vanished out of the Linear Realm, its task fulfilled.

\

“Impossible!”   
“Unbelievable!”  
“This CAN’T be happening!”

The room was full of Dark Entities exclaiming in unbelief and fear. The human had magical abilities! They wanted desperately to think he just batted away the grenade but they had seen… He had thrown it away with magic! 

“KILL HIM!!” The screams rang out as the dark spirits controlled their hosts. 

The Anarchists all aimed their weapons at Ray again, mechanically, with insanity and hatred in their eyes. 

Ray swept his arm around him and the guns all flew out of the would-be soldiers’ hands and clattered on the ground behind him, harmless. 

One boy who looked no older than 15 unsheathed a knife and lunged at Ray with a screech that would have been blood-curdling had it not been for the unfortunate voice crack at the climax of the screech. Possessed or not, the boy was pubescent and his vocal chords were still undergoing reconstruction.

The crack in the boy’s war cry did not go unnoticed by Ray. He laughed and with one hand raised, halted the boy mid-lunge and, smiling, twisted the knife out of the paralyzed boy’s grip.

One Dark Entity lost its patience and made its puppet pounce onto a pile of grenades next to him.

“Ah-ah-ah!” Ray said condescendingly, pushing the grenades away with magic, just out of the barely legal guy’s reach.

“STOP THAT!” One of the only adults in the room shouted.  
“Stop That!” His evil puppetmaster shouted at the same time.

Ray looked up, above the crowd of unnaturally still soldiers and said, “Make me…”

\

Sans, without another word, prepared another blast when suddenly a portal opened up behind Gaster’s disappearing body. 

Humans probably wouldn’t have been able to see it, but Sans saw a massive Dark Entity walk through the Portal, accompanied by a small entourage of demons that threw themselves at Sans.

Sans easily sidestepped the assault the quickly impaled the creatures on a few well-timed bones.

Looking back in front of him, Sans wasn’t surprised to see that the Large Entity made no effort to attack him. Gaster was already through the Portal, limping away into a dark pillared place.

One look at the Demonic Captain and Sans knew that the handful of slaves that the Captain had brought with him weren’t meant to kill Sans, only to be a distraction. The Captain must have deceived, intimidated or forced them to come on this suicide mission. 

Sans glared at the Captain and the Captain glared back, his face half concealed in shadow, only red points of light that suggested eyes visible.

“We have allowed you to win this day, Monster. The next time will not be so easy…”

Sans rolled his eyes.

“like hell you ‘allowed’ this. But” he shrugged “whatever helps you not-sleep at not-night”

“Fool…I am not your father. You will find that I am not swayed by foolish sentiment as he is.”

A row of blasters appeared around Sans, the air rumpling with Magic.

“I dunno if you’ve noticed but…” Sans eye burst into blue and yellow fire “I ain’t much for sentiment, either…” His voice growled. 

Above Sans, four Light Entities suddenly appeared, the ringing of unsheathed blades reaching the Captain.

The Captain shrieked and ducked back into the Portal, the gateway dissipating rapidly. If it had been anywhere else, the Gate would have been able to remain open for much longer. But, being in Ebbot, a region controlled by Light Entities and occupied by Monsters, the portal was weak and feeble and the Captain had very little time and resources to work with, other than a quick threat.

Sans sighed and said, to the Blasters and the Light Entities around him, “welp, better see what the story is in town”

\

The room was so tense the pressure could be felt everywhere.

The Dark Entities prepared to rush at Ray themselves when light suddenly streamed into the room, both spiritually and physically. 

The room suddenly was filled with Light Entities, where they had appeared from, none of the Dark Entities had foreseen. They had coincided with the appearance of a short, hooded skeleton and several dragon-faced Blasters.

The door had also burst open and several police officers stormed the room, handguns and shotguns out, pointed at the once-armed terrorists. Along with them stood a tall, lanky skeleton with a long bone in his hand and a strong looking fish monster with a teal colored spear in her fists.

The Dark Entities’ resolve left them and they fled, losing control of their human puppets while doing so.

The Light Entities matched them in number and more than matched up in speed and power and it wasn’t long before all Dark Entities were defeated and banished to the Wall of Suffering. 

The human terrorists, their wills left weak and ravaged by the Dark Entities, collapsed and lost all will to fight. Some even began to sob.

Papyrus walked into the room and asked, “SANS??? WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME???”

Sans, sat down, exhausted and shrugged, “welp, tibia-honest, bro, we just proved Ebbot is made of ‘sternum’ stuff than anyone thought” he winked.

“SAAANS!!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good LORD, this chapter took foreeveerrr to write lol but I think it turned out ok...?


	22. Did you really think it was over???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As everything quiets down and everyone rests from the Attack on Ebbot, Ray is shown that the adventure is only just getting started...

After Sans appeared in the crowded room on that evening, the remaining anarchists were arrested and/or rushed to the emergency room. 

The FBI appeared at the scene and asked Ray and all the other witnesses questions about the scenario and Ray especially was grilled with questions as to how he survived the encounter and what exactly happened.

Ray wisely said nothing about his magic and said simply that the would-be shooters all appeared to be zoned out and their actions must’ve been retarded by drugs. 

The FBI left him alone after this statement and he was released and sent home.

He came home to find Frisk in a state of panic and worry, clutching Asriel. When he was told what happened, Ray held his two step-siblings close and didn’t leave them until Asgore and Toriel returned home later that night. The two had arrived as soon as they could and they had been deathly afraid.

After a few hours of story-sharing, the children were sent to bed. Frisk asked if she could sleep in the boys’ room and she was given a mattress to sleep on and some blankets.

That night, all the residents slept peacefully even in regards to what had happened that day.

Clouds rolled over the city once again, but no thunder or lightning came, just rain. Sweet peaceful rain that lulls you to sleep and refreshes the Earth. 

In the middle of the night, a Fourth Person entered the children’s room. He was not human, nor was he a monster. His face held a vigilant watch as he approached Ray with a small orb of colors in his hand.

When the Beyond means to show a Mortal something, they sometimes take them while still in the body and are shown incredible things. Other times, like what was happening to Ray, they are given orders and warnings and promises in dreams. The Light Entity held in his hand a collection of events that would be important for Ray to see. 

He approached Ray and placed the Orb of events over his Soul and the orb disintegrated into it, like a program being uploaded into a hard drive. Ray’s soul received the Message and, through a series of processes that are both spiritual and biological that science still does not fully understand, the message was shown to Ray in his dreams.

\

Ray found himself walking in a bizarre place. The Sun beat down on his head, but it didn’t feel the same as it used to. Everything was very warm but not uncomfortably so. It was incredibly humid and all around Ray grew thick lush green grass that grew to his waist. Ahead of him was a small hut made of dried plant materials and clay. A horse was stabled near the hut, adorned with a strange metal bridle that seemed to fit comfortably in its mouth.

Out of the hut walked a man. Ray couldn’t be sure of his age. He seemed quite young but the way he walked and acted suggested that he was old, very old. He didn’t seem infirm, in fact he looked to be in the bloom of health. It was the wisdom in his eyes that made him appear ancient.

He walked around with a robe of tan wrapped around his body. The robe appeared to be some kind of leather made from the skin of some great Beast. However, the robe seemed only part made of some former mammal, as some of the patterns of the clothing still had the impression of scales reminiscent to a large reptile of some kind.

Ray didn’t have much time to ponder this as he realized the Man was looking down a lane, little more than a dirt path between two cedar trees that were much larger than any cedars that Ray had ever seen; they grew up to 20 feet high! 

A figure was running down the road to the Man’s home. The figure wore a dark robe, almost black and was hooded so that his face remained hidden. The person was very tall and quite thin.

The Man seemed unafraid and casually leaned on a staff made of polished wood. He definitely recognized the figure running to him, but wasn’t sure if he came with tidings of joy or ill.

The figure approached near and stopped its running and spoke, its voice holding little, if any, shortness of breath. 

:Greetings, friend!: he stated. His voice thin but carrying both friendliness and seriousness in his tone.

“Ossa!” The Man said a slight smile on his face. “What brings you here, away from the Citadel?”

:I have come for two reasons; firstly to see how you are, as is my duty as your Bellua Protector and Friend and second of all to warn you to avoid the City.:

“What’s happening in the City?” the Man asked, curious and mildly alarmed.

:It has been consumed by deception; unclean spirits have entered the city, asking for the women and drinks of the land to be given to them…Some men and their Bellui have wisely refused sanctuary for them, but many men in the City distrust the Bellui and, instead, throw their lot in with these…these …Furia…: 

Ossa said this last word with a growl in his voice and Ray could see that the figure’s eyes began to glow.

:Enoch…: Ossa said, removing his hood. Ray gasped as Ossa turned out to be a Monster, and not just a monster, a tall regal looking Skeleton.

:Evil is approaching…:

\

Ray woke up, his eyes wide open. It was morning and Frisk and Asriel were still asleep.

Ray wondered what had awoken him when he heard his phone buzz on the counter next to him.

Straining, he reached for his phone and opened his texts messages. 

Two unread texts from “Legendary Fartmaster”.

‘heya. hate to bug ya but it looks like we better get ready to go on a little trip soon.’

‘tell Asriel too’

Ray looked at his brother and breathed deeply, realizing that their struggles with the Dark Entities was not over…

In fact, he could see now that it had only just begun…

 

 

 

The tale will continue in the next story; Undertale – Promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh yall, I'm sorry but I went and did it...I just HAD to make this a multiple parter! Sorry about the cliché but there just was no way to put everything in one story! Undertale - Promises is already being worked on though and I will post chapters for it soon after I go through A Second Chance and fix some of the grammar mistakes, plot holes, etc. 
> 
> Thanks for yall's support! And take care of yourselves, cause someone really cares about ya! :)


End file.
